Trapped Souls
by PsychoMD
Summary: Ash re-enters the Kanto League Tournament with high hopes, but the story takes a dark turn when the unthinkable happens. *COMPLETED* Please Read and Review
1. Trapped Souls Chapter 1: The Battle

Just a quick note. This is my first real shot at writing something other then comedy, so I hope you enjoy it. I put the genre down as General, although you'll see that it has some Fantasy, Angst, Tragedy, and Adventure stuff in it. So when one is not sure, you go with General. Also, I'm going to go under the assumption that everyone who's reading this knows what pokemon is, and have seen the show, so I'm not going to go into too much detail describing basic stuff, like what a pokeball is, and who Ash is. However, anything that I think needs exposition will get it. Enjoy. Oh also, forgive the format, when I originally posted this, it came up with no TAB spaces, so it was very congested, so I figured spaces are better then a big ol' block of words. Anyway, Enjoy.  
  
  
  
The story picks up back in the Kanto league in the Indigo Plateau. Ash has recently found out that once a trainer collects the 8 Kanto badges, he's or she's allowed to compete in the Kanto league pokemon tournament as often as he or she pleases. So since they were near the Johto/Kanto border anyway, Ash decided to take a break from collecting the Johto league badges to try his hand at competing at this years competition.  
  
Our three heroes, Ash, Misty and Brock have just arrived outside the main sign up office for the tournament. "Come on guys," Ash beckoned to his friends, "I cant wait to sign up! I bet I win this year!"  
  
Before his friends could catch up, Ash took off inside the building. Misty just shook her head, "You gotta give him credit, the way he's carrying on about this tournament, you'd have think he was in the top four the last time he was here."  
  
Brock grinned, "Hey, cut him some slack, he's gotten much better since then, I think he's got a good chance of making it far this time."  
  
"Yeah well." Misty said, "I just hate to see him have his hopes so high, remember when he lost last year? He moped for a week!"  
  
"Yeah, but that's not all that unusual, when I lost my first match against a gym leader I stayed away from pokemon for 3 days, I just spent all that time in the town's arcade. But I got over it, and so did Ash. It's all part of the maturing process."  
  
Misty shrugged, "I guess."  
  
Ash stuck his head out the door, and shouted, "Hey are you guys coming or what? We've already been here 2 minutes and I'm not even on line yet! Come on!!!"  
  
Misty glanced at Brock and asked, "What was that you were saying about maturity?"  
  
Brock just shrugged and started off into the building, followed closely by Misty. In the bushes a middle aged man watched the two's exchange and departure with a burning interest.  
  
  
  
Sometime later...  
  
  
  
Ash walked out of the sign up office with his nose in a map-like piece of paper and Pikachu on his shoulder looking on. Misty and Brock trailed behind him. "Hmmmm." Ash said, "It says here that I'm trainer number 857. Man. I'd forgotten just how many trainers tried out for this tournament!"  
  
"Over one thousand, Ash" Brock said, "It's a ten round tournament, finally ending with the tenth battle, the final two."  
  
"The final two." Ash said dreamily, "Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it Pikachu?"  
  
Pikachu agreed. Ash started up again, "And then after the final two, we'll be the winner! Isn't that right?"  
  
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed again enthusiastically. Misty couldn't help but smile, Ash's enthusiasm really WAS contagious. "So when's your first match Ash?"  
  
"Well, if I'm reading this thing correctly." Ash said reading the complicated layout of the pokemon battle schedules, "Then. I have no absolutely no idea when my match is."  
  
Brock and Misty let out a groan. "Here Ash," Brock said taking away the schedule, "Let me take a look. Hmmmm. this reads like stereo instructions. Let's see. 857, that's you, battles 125 at 8:30am tomorrow."  
  
Misty checked her watch, "It's 5pm now, maybe we should get some dinner and then get a good night's rest?"  
  
Ash grinned, "Well, I like the dinner part, but I'm WAY to excited to sleep!"  
  
The same middle aged man watched the three of them walk into a diner. After the teens were out of sight, the man stood up from his bench and brushed himself off. He ran his fingers through his raven colored hair. He grinned and whispered to himself, "Don't you worry boy, soon you'll get all the rest you'll ever need."  
  
  
  
The next day, about 10 minutes before the match, Ash was getting ready. "Ok," Ash said taking out some pokeballs, "I've decided to use Noctowl, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu."  
  
Brock nodded, "That's a good choice, a flying type, a grass type, and an electric type. Plus they're all well trained."  
  
"How THAT happened, we'll never know." Misty said winking at Ash.  
  
"Oh, haha." Ash said sarcastically.  
  
A gong cried outside the arena, followed by a PA message. "Attention please. Would Trainers competing at the noon, 12:15, and 12:30 battle, please start heading to their designated battle courts."  
  
"That's us!" Ash said as he put his shoulder out for Pikachu, "Well buddy, ready to win?"  
  
With a cheerful, 'pika!' Pikachu leapt up onto its trainer shoulder. Brock grinned and said, "Good luck Ash, that other trainer doesn't stand a chance!"  
  
Misty gave Ash a quick hug, then said, "Good luck Ash, we'll be rooting for you!!"  
  
"Thanks, both of you!" Ash said grinning ear to ear, "Lets go, Pikachu! Time to win round one!"  
  
And Ash dashed into the stadium and out of Misty and Brock's sight.  
  
"We'd better hurry and get a seat," Brock said to Misty, "We want to make sure we get a close view!"  
  
  
  
The battle court was a rocky environment. The ground was solid rock, with tall rocky jags sticking up out of it. The trainers stood on either end, atop of a one foot high platform over looking the court. Ash stood on the 'blue' side, waiting for his opponent. He could feel the butterflies in his stomach. "Nervous Pikachu?" Ash asked.  
  
Pikachu nodded. "Yeah, I know how you feel," Ash said scooping up his favorite pokemon, "I'd forgotten how many people show up to these battles!"  
  
Ash scanned the many faces, looking for his friends. "Hey Pikachu, do you see Misty or Brock anywhere?"  
  
Pikachu chimed, "Pika!" and nodded towards the eastern side. Ash looked this way, and after a moment found his friends and gave them a wave. Then he let out a sigh. "You know Pikachu, battling in front of all these people is tough enough, but WAITING for your opponent is even tougher! Now I know how Richie must have felt!"  
  
Suddenly a murmur started through the crowd. It only took a moment for Ash to figure out that the cause of this disturbance was that his opponent had just come through his entrance. The man looked about twice as old as Ash, with tussled brown hair and thick glasses. But what really caused the murmurs was what he was wearing. He wore a brown kakhi's, a white button down shirt, a tie, but most shockingly of all, doctor's lab coat, slightly stained red.  
  
There was a heavy silence in the stadium as the man took his place on the platform. He waved the referee over to him. After a moment of conversation together, the ref said into his microphone, "The challenger apologizes for his tardiness, he was called in for an emergency operation."  
  
General assent flowed through the crowd as the ref walked back to a neutral side. The doctor walked to his side of the ring, and removed his bloodied lab coat and laid it over the side. Ash hollered over, "Don't worry about it, but lets get this match underway, what do you say?"  
  
The doctor grinned, and said, "Nothing would please me more, young man."  
  
The ref spoke up, his voice booming throughout the stadium, "This round one battle is against Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, and Harry Rottop of Celedon City. It will be a three on three battle, a pokemon is out once it is called back, or cannot battle any longer. BEGIN!!!"  
  
The crowded exploded with cheers as Ash pulled out his pokeball, "Alright lets start this out right, I choose you Noctowl!"  
  
Noctowl came out of the ball, and soared through the air, glittering slightly. After one complete circle around the ring, it came to a rest on a tall rocky jag. Harry stared at the bird for a moment, then pulled out a pokeball of his own. He opened it and out stood came a Scyther. The crowd murmured slightly. "A Scyther?" Ash thought, "Why would he use a bug- type against a flying type?"  
  
"Quick Scyther," Harry called out, "Use your slash attack before Noctowl can fly away!"  
  
The green insect leapt forward with incredible speed, swinging its large claw. "Woah, it's FAST! Noctowl, fly away!" Ash called. Noctowl flew away JUST before Scyther could attack, the blade slicing deep into the rock. "Now drop down and tackle!" Ash commanded.  
  
Obediently Noctowl soared down and slammed into the bug's chest. Scyther was driven across the court, but somehow managed to keep its balance. "Fight back with your False Swipe!" Harry ordered. The giant bug swung a few more times at the bird, but it couldn't connect, Noctowl managed to keep one step ahead.  
  
"Wow," Misty said to Brock from their seats, "Ash and Noctowl are looking pretty good out there."  
  
"Finish it off with Confusion!" Ash ordered almost at the same time.  
  
As Scyther drove forward to attack, Noctowl released a powerful Psychic attack catching the bug full on.  
  
The bug pokemon staggered, then collapsed, and Noctowl was declared the winner. Ash noticed the look on Harry's face. It was contorted in anger. "Well good" Ash thought, "It's easier to win when your opponent loses his cool."  
  
"Scyther, return" Harry said through gritted teeth, "Ok, Alakazam! It's your turn!"  
  
The powerful Psychic-type pokemon appeared out of its ball and stood poised to battle. From his seat Brock said to Misty, "Wow, take a look at that Alakazam, it looks really strong!"  
  
Harry grinned and ordered his Alakazam to use its Psywave attack. Noctowl swooped to avoid it, "Noctowl, use your Confusion attack against it!"  
  
Noctowl obeyed Ash, but Alakazam didn't even flinch.  
  
"Augh! ASH! You dummy!" Misty yelled from her seat, "Don't you know that Psychic attacks are weak against Psychic types???" Fortunately for Ash, she was in the tenth row, and he couldn't hear her.  
  
"Alakzam, why don't you show our. opponent., what a REAL confusion attack looks like?"  
  
Obediently, Alakazam put its two spoons together and shot out a light blue ray catching Noctowl dead on. The flying pokemon let out a chirp of pain as it was driven back over 10 feet, and then started to drop to the ground. Before it could crash onto the rocky ground, Ash quickly called it back. "Noctowl return!"  
  
"Noctowl is unable to battle." The ref declared, even as Ash was calling his pokemon back. "That Alakzam is powerful, think you can handle it, Pikachu?" Ash asked looking down at his pokemon.  
  
"Pika!" Pikachu answered nodding.  
  
"Well, then," Ash declared, pointing at his opponent, "Go Pikachu!!!" The yellow electric mouse leapt forward and stood face to face with its opponent. Pikachu leaped back and sent a blast of electricity. On command, Alakazam teleported away from it. After 3 more teleports, and electric misses, Ash called out, "Ok, forget thunderbolt, Pikachu, match its teleport with your agility!"  
  
What ensued for the next minute was lightning fast moves between the 2 pokemon, the crowd cheering trying to keep up with the two's movements. "Enough!" Harry yelled, "Let's end this stalemate, use your hypnosis!"  
  
Before Pikachu could dodge away, it locked eyes with Alakazam. And in an instant Pikachu was dazed from Alakazam's hypnosis.  
  
"OH NO!" Ash said in unison with his friends up in the crowd.  
  
"No more chances, use your Hyperbeam on that puny runt!" Harry ordered.  
  
"Pikachu, snap out of it and dodge it!!!"  
  
It was hard to see what body part the beam of pure power came from, maybe it was its mouth, or maybe it was the psychic spoons. but where ever came from, it caught Pikachu full force. The blast drove the small mouse clean out of the ring and right into Ash's arms.  
  
"PIKACHU!" Ash cried out, "are you alright???" Though scorched slightly, and in obvious pain, Pikachu nodded to its master to let it know it was ok. "Well you did wonderful Pikachu, now sit here and rest up, ok?"  
  
Ash started to burn slightly with anger, part of it was he was losing, part of it was that smug look on Harry's face, but most of it was the unnecessarily powerful attack against his disable pokemon. What kind of trainer was this guy? "Well, we'll get some revenge for Pikachu right? Go Bulbasaur!"  
  
The grass pokemon appeared on the field in a flash. Alakazam still looked drained from its Hyper Beam. "Alright Bulbasaur, use your take down attack before Alakazam can fully recover!!!"  
  
"Alakzam, teleport!"  
  
But luckily for Ash and Bulbasaur, the psychic pokemon was too tired to follow its command in time, and a well place, powerful attack drove it into a large rock. Alakazam let out a moan and fell down flat on his face. The smug look from Harry's face disappeared as the referee declared Alakazam unable to battle. His face stiffened, and he glared at Ash. "You asked for it." He said coldly. "Gangar, its your time!" And the dark ghost type pokemon appeared on the field.  
  
The crowd loved the site of this rare pokemon. "A Gangar?" Ash said surprised, then said, "Don't worry about it Bulbasaur, you can do it!"  
  
Harry's cold glare continued even through the cheers. He looked at Bulbasaur, then at Ash, then at his Gangar. Then his eyes fell back on Ash. "We've come to far to fail now my friend." Rottop said to his pokemon, "Lets not worry about victory, Gangar."  
  
Gangar smiled its large smile and nodded. Ash called out, "All right Bulbasaur, lets start this out with a razor leaf attack!"  
  
"Gangar." Harry said coldly, "You know what to do."  
  
Gangar nodded and quickly disappeared dodging the attack. In a moment it reappeared closer to Bulbasaur and started to charge at it. "Quick Bulbasaur, dodge it!" Ash called out.  
  
Bulbasaur leaped quickly to its side, Gangar just missing him. But the ghost pokemon didn't seem to pay any attention, it just kept charging forward.  
  
The next few moments seemed to go in slow motion. Harry yelled out, "Do it NOW, Gangar!!!"  
  
Ash got out the words, "What the?" And backed up a bit as Gangar rushed him. Misty and Brock stood up in their seats, and got out the words "ASH!!!" Bulbasaur quickly realized that Gangar was attacking not him, but his master, and quickly turned on its heels to attack the ghost. But before Bulbasaur could reach the ghost, the ghost reached its location. Gangar eyes turned a bright red, and it released a pure white light beam. The beam crashed right into Ash's chest, but it didn't drive Ash backwards. It just seemed to go right through him.  
  
At this moment the crowd let out a collective gasp, and Pikachu called out to Ash. The light faded away, and Ash quickly dropped over the back railing, and fell limply to the ground just below the stand. His body just laid there in a head, motionless on the rocky ground. Time seemed to stand still as everyone saw this young man lay there lifelessly.  
  
Then absolute havoc broke out. Some people in the crowd screamed. Others yelled. The announcer was calling for the paramedics and security onto the court. With tears in her eyes, Misty started sprinting down the isle, only a step behind Brock, who was muscling people out of the way. The ref up to Harry yelling at him, "Your disqualified, and your going to be arrested! Stay where you are!"  
  
Harry grinned evilly. Without even paying attention to the ref, he called back his Gangar and called out his Alakazam. "Alakazam, teleport all of us out of here."  
  
Alakazam nodded curtly and in a flash, Harry and the pokemon disappeared. The crowd got louder. Pikachu leaped next to Ash and was rubbing against him, tears in its little eyes. Despite the panic, Misty and Brock had quickly made it down to Ash, even before security could get there. Running up to him Misty kept calling his name, "Ash, ASH! Ash, are you ok???" The two kneeled down in front of their friend. Brock told Misty not to move him, and with a shaking hand felt Ash's neck and face. "Oh Ash, come on! Open your eyes! Please!" Misty said through tears.  
  
The medics came in quickly and moved Brock and Misty out of the way. Misty leaned into Brock crying. Brock just stood there stunned watching his friend being worked on. All three of their hearts sunk, Misty's, Brock's, and Pikachu's, when they saw the medics shaking their heads at each sadly at each other. Then none of Ash's friend could contain their tears.  
  
**************************************************************************** *****  
  
The following day's Pallet Town Press read:  
  
LOCAL BOY DIES DURING POKEMON BATTE  
  
Local teenager Ash Ketchum, age 15, was murdered yesterday during the first round of the Kanto League Pokemon Tournament. The young man died in the last round of his match with a man under the alias of Harry Rottop (the real Harry Rottop was found severally attacked and left for dead behind the food court. He is still in critical condition, see page 3 for full story/Rottop) This unidentified man used his Gangar to use an unknown attack on Ketchum, which resulted in almost instantaneous death. Police are still looking for the man, anyone with any news should immediately call the Indigo Plateau police. (See page 3 for full story/Murder)  
  
To be continued... dont you hate that?  
  
But fear not, because Chapter 2 is already up! 


	2. Trapped Souls Chapter 2: The Wake

Just a quick note: This is obviously a continuation of Chapter 1. so if you haven't read the first chapter you might want to start there, Only a suggestion. :) I want to thank everyone that posted reviews of my story, and I hope everyone will post a review for this chapter too. Oh just a quick explanation, PSI is read almost like pronouncing the word "Sigh", and means Psychic. I'm sure most of you know that, but a friend who looked over this story for me did not, so I figured I'd just post it and make fun of that person. you know who you are.  
  
The funeral parlor was nearly empty except for just a few people. Ash's wake didn't start for at least a half and hour. But Ash's mother, Professor Oak, Misty, Pikachu, Brock and Tracey were already there, setting up. Truth be told, the place was already set up. The rows of chairs in place, the book to sign was out, and the flowers were set up decorating the coffin. But Ash's mother wanted everything to be right, and everyone else wanted to comfort her.  
  
At the head of the room, there was Ash lying in his coffin, looking peaceful and a little out of place wearing a suit, instead of his usual jeans and T-shirt. He almost looked like he was sleeping. The police wanted an autopsy but his mother wouldn't hear of having her son being chopped up before the funeral... that could wait till afterwards.  
  
The room was silent. No one spoke a word, but sometimes words just aren't important. What was important was that everyone was there for one another. One the outside, everyone was dressed up looking nice, and proper, but if you looked closely you could see that they were all showing the effects of fatigue, evidence that none of them had much sleep since the tragedy.  
  
Misty spoke softly, "I'm going to go outside for a minute, I need some fresh air." She stood up, and Brock rose with her, "I'll go with you." Ash's mother didn't seem to notice, but Professor Oak nodded to them. Pikachu followed behind her slowly. The little yellow pokemon didn't have the same bounce in his step he usually had.  
  
Outside Misty leaned against a post that held up the awning. She felt like crying, but she had done so much of it lately, she didn't want to anymore. Brock tried to break the silence. "Have you gotten any sleep?"  
  
Misty nodded, "A little, an hour last night, more then I have got the night before. You?"  
  
Brock shook his head. "None last night."  
  
They went back to silence. Now it was Misty's turn to break the silence, "I really can't believe he's gone. I mean... it was only a pokemon battle... you can't die during a pokemon battle."  
  
"I know what you mean... but if its any comfort at all... he went out doing what he loved the most. And he won his last match... I think where ever Ash is right now, he's happy knowing that."  
  
Misty's eyes started to fill with tears, "I know Brock, but no, its not much comfort... it's just not fair... Oh Ash."  
  
Brock hugged his friend close while she broke down in tears again.  
  
Meanwhile, not far from there, Ash was just waking up. "Ohhhh, my head." he thought, "How long was I out for?" His eyes were out of focus and the room was dark. He couldn't make out a thing, but he swore he could smell mildew and dust. Ash tried to stand up, but couldn't feel his legs. He felt dizzy. "Oh man..." Ash said quietly, "Where am I? Last thing I remember, I was battling that doctor guy... and... then he used some weird attack, on me!" The fog in Ash's brain cleared up a little, and he remembered the last moments of his battle. "That's right, now I remember, he purposely attacked me... the cheater..." Ash tried to stand again but stumbled. "That move really packed a wallop. But where am I? If I was that hurt, how come I'm not in a hospital? And where's Pikachu? And Misty and Brock?" Ash starting to panic got up to his feet, and he shouted, "HEY!!! IS ANYONE HERE???" It was still too dark in the room to see clearly, but his eyes were starting to adjust.  
  
From what he could see, the room looked like an old basement, filled with junk. Ash moved forward a bit, "Is there a light switch in here?"  
  
"Here," A voice called from the darkness, "Let me help you."  
  
The lights came on, revealing that the room indeed was a basement of sorts. Stacks of boxes lined one side of the room, covered with dust and cobwebs. The walls, floors and ceiling were all made of stone, showing its age, covered with moss, dust, and spots of fungus. In the far right of the room, there was a set of creaky wooden steps. At the bottom of those steps stood the man who Ash was battling before. "Hey... you?" Ash said angrily, "What's the deal having your Gangar attacking me?!? I could have been hurt!"  
  
A wicked grin came over the man's face, "You mean you weren't hurt? Are you sure?"  
  
Ash took a step towards him, "What are you grinning about?"  
  
The man stood his ground, "You haven't realized it yet... you are thick, aren't you?"  
  
"That does it, get out of my way, I'm leaving" Ash said storming forward, and he tried to push the man out of the way. But to Ash's total shock, his hand went right through then man, and Ash took a tumble to the floor, then nearly through the floor.  
  
"What..." Ash said exasperated, "What the... what...?" For the first time since he woke up, Ash took a look at his hands. They were transparent. "What... what... what.... did you do to me???" Ash struggled to pull himself up from the floor. He was starting to panic. Was he a ghost? Was he dead?  
  
The man stood his ground, "Your probably thinking, 'what's going on', right?" The man took a few steps into the room. His shoes clacked on the concrete. "Allow me to explain. You know me as Harry Rottop, but my real name is Geoff Rankor. And tell me, do I look familiar to you?"  
  
Ash floated in midair, looking at the man. He DID look, vaguely familiar. But Ash really couldn't place the face. Ash admitted this, "I'm sorry sir, but no."  
  
This seemed to really piss of Geoff. His face turned a slightly redder in color. "You ruin a man's life, and you don't even remember him."  
  
Ash was taken aback. "Ruined your life? I don't know you, and I'm not sure I ever met you before,. how could I have done anything to you!"  
  
The man paced around slightly. "Does the name Sabrina mean anything to you?"  
  
"Sabrina? The gym leader?" The man nodded. Ash was even more confused, "But, what does she have to do with you?"  
  
"Think. Before you met her, you met the leader of her Psi classes."  
  
Ash studied the man's face... then it struck him. "Yeah! That's right, you're the guy who bent that spoon." But Ash's realization only confused him more... "I only met you for a few minutes, what could I have done to you? And why did you attack me? And what did you do to me?"  
  
"Patience... all in due time."  
  
Ash floated there, and folded his arms and muttered, "Not like I have a choice."  
  
Geoff smiled at Ash, not a pleasant sight, and said, "Your absolutely right about that. Anyway, you should KNOW what I did to you!"  
  
Ash looked at himself, transparent and floating, "You killed me!"  
  
Geoff smiled, "Actually, no, I didn't. It's your family and friends that are going to kill you."  
  
Ash shook his head, he couldn't believe this was happening, "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Its really quite simple." Geoff said, "My Gangar removed your soul out of your body. It's a little trick I taught him. Right now, your body is a lifeless, soulless husk; dead for all general purpose. No brainwaves, no heartbeat, nothing. However, if you were to re-entered your body," The man snapped his fingers, "Just like that, you'd be alive again. That's the real beauty to this. The irony is so delicious."  
  
Geoff took a few more steps around the room, savoring this moment, "Too bad your friends don't know this. They think your dead, in fact your wake is going on now. I'm afraid your family is going to have an autopsy, after the funeral tomorrow."  
  
Ash's face fell, he was silent for a moment, "But... if my body is destroyed... what happens to me."  
  
The man let out a barking laugh, "I suppose that's for the philosophers, because I have no idea! I figure you'll be stuck on this earthly plain, a damned spirit. Of course, who knows, this is the first time I've tried this."  
  
Ash felt like he could cry at this point. Here he was a disembodied spirit, at the hands of an obvious madman, intent on killing him, for god only knows what reason. "But WHY???? Why me?"  
  
"BECAUSE YOU'VE RUINED MY LIFE!!!" Geoff screamed so loudly that it actually shook some of the dust off the ceiling. Ash backed up slightly. Geoff moved in on him, his face twisted with rage, "You little bastard, I was Sabrina's next in command of that school. I was THIS close to becoming as powerful a psychic as Sabrina, but then you came along. You cheered her up, her attitude was completely different afterwards, she started actually paying attention to her students, and to me. She found out the truth about me. She found out that I was a top agent in Team Rocket, and I was there to increase my psychic power to the point where I could control ANY psychic pokemon. It would have practically made me the LEADER of Team Rocket. And I was so close! But when she found out, she was livid, I tried to fight, but I was no match for her powers. She threw me out of the school, I was disgraced. Then came that little fiasco you had with the pokemon-breeding center? Remember that? DO YOU????"  
  
Ash nodded slightly. "Yeah, Butch and Cassidy were running a fake..."  
  
"SHUT UP!!!" Geoff screamed, "You stupid boy, you don't have to explain the plan to me! Who's idea do you think that was? Butch's? Cassidy? Of course not! It was MY plan, those two only my lackeys in the plan! It was a perfect plan. It would have completely erased my shame of my last favor. But then you come around, and you have to meddle in! YOU ruined it! When the plan fell through, the blame was laid completely on me. I was fired. I was arrested. I spent an entire year in a prison."  
  
Ash was completely freaked out now, the man wasn't even looking at him anymore, he was almost in a trance telling his story, Ash started thinking, "He's starting to wig out... maybe I can use that to my advantage and get out of here."  
  
"When I got out of prison," The crazed man continued, "I found out where you were, and I followed you all the way to the Orange League. I tried killing you there more then once. A snapped bridge here. A wild pokemon attack there... but no matter WHAT I did, you just wouldn't die. Then I followed you to Johto. More broken bridges... you really were thick, almost ever bridge you passed over broke, you'd think you'd have recognized a pattern. But you were hard to kill. Much too hard. I was about to give up hope, but when I found out that you were entering the Kanto League Tournament, I came up with this plan. And for once in my life since I've met you, my plan worked, I've got you here, and I get to watch you die." Geoff closed his eyes for a moment absolutely drinking in the moment. Ash saw his moment.  
  
"Well, thanks for the story, I really have to get going!" Ash said quickly, diving through Geoff and flew up the steps. Geoff was taken by surprise, as Ash flew through the door. He tore ass up the stairs and practically kicked down the door. "You're not going anywhere BOY!"  
  
"Well, I'm a ghost, I don't think you can stop me!" Ash called back.  
  
Geoff reached into his pocket, "The hell I cant... Alakazam, STOP HIM!" and threw out his pokeball. In an instant, Ash stopped in midair. "Hey!" he called out, "What happened???"  
  
"You've forgotten," Geoff said, "Ghosts are weak against Psychic attacks. Tsk... and you thought you'd become a pokemon master, and you cant even remember things like that."  
  
Alakazam used his powers to bring Ash back down to the basement. Our hero floated there struggling against the power, but to no avail. "Alakazam," Geoff ordered, "Would you please teach our young guest a lesson?"  
  
The pokemon nodded, and then sent a powerful Psi blast at Ash, catching the young boy full on. "WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Ash let out a sharp scream, he'd never felt pain like this. Finally the pain stopped, and Ash floated to the floor, struggling not to black out.  
  
"Your really unlucky, you know that?" Geoff gloated, "For some reason, your mom didn't embalm you, or have an autopsy yet, both would have killed you completely. But instead, she's going to wait till after the funeral, so I get to play with you for almost two days! Won't that be fun? Much better then having you fall off a bridge, now that I think about it, it would have been much to fast."  
  
Ash struggled to pull himself up. He tried to talk, but he was in too much pain. Geoff was surprised, "You've still got fight in you! After a Psi beam like that? Well then, it just wouldn't be fair to let Alakazam have all the fun. Gangar, come on out!"  
  
In an instant, Ash was staring not only at the powerful Psychic pokemon, but now a powerful Ghost type as well. He was only able to contemplate this for a second, before a nightshade attack drove him back. Ash was sure that if he weren't already 'dead', this would have killed him. The world was starting to go dark again. Ash crawled towards Gangar and Geoff, when an attack he didn't see, but realized it must have come from Alakazam turned his lights off once again. Just before he blacked out, the last thing he heard was the 2 pokemon and Geoff laughing as if this was the greatest moment in their lives.  
  
  
  
Back at the wake, Misty was seated in the back of the funeral parlor. She just couldn't bear to see Ash in the coffin. So she hid in the back. Misty took a look around the room. There were about 20 people here already. Some paying their respects, some making forced small talk, some just sitting and contemplating. There were a few faces Misty had never seen before, Ash's relatives, and a few faces she hadn't seen in a while. Duplica, the ditto master in training, came up to the redhead and put a hand on her shoulder. "How are you holding up?" She asked.  
  
"I'm ok." Misty said quietly.  
  
"No... your not." Duplica said just as quietly, "It was a stupid question."  
  
Misty and her friend stood there quietly for a minute. Duplica broke the silence. "I'm really sorry. He really was a great person. And a great trainer. I remember when I met up with you guys again in Johto. When I down he immediately tried to cheer me up."  
  
"Yeah." Misty said, "He was like that."  
  
"You know, I don't think I've ever met anyone with his energy or drive..." Duplica trailed off as Misty started crying again. "Come on Misty" Duplica said, "Why don't we get you some water from the water cooler downstairs."  
  
Misty silently walked out of the crowding room, Duplica leading her gently. Misty was so out of it that on her way out she bumped into someone she didn't recognize, but she thought it looked an uncle or something. "Sorry." She muttered. The man nodded at her.  
  
Brock watched her head downstairs. Much like Misty, he couldn't bare to be in the front near Ash. This was killing him on the inside, but he always suspected that Misty always hid feelings for Ash, and couldn't imagine how she was feeling now. To lose someone without letting them know how you felt. Brock leaned against the wall and stared into space. "Something you want to talk about?" A familiar voice asked him. Brock turned and saw that it was Tracey.  
  
"No. Its ok."  
  
Tracey stared at Brock, "I know what's on your mind. I can read it in your face."  
  
Brock turned his back slightly to Tracey, "No, it's ok, really. There's nothing."  
  
Tracey put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "It's not your fault that this happened. I can read it in your face that you feel guilty."  
  
Brock started to argue, but decided not to, its something he'd been fighting with since this happened, he decided to let it out, "Yes it is... it is partly my fault. Ash was my best friend, and he was also like a little brother to me. And Misty like a sister. I always considered them like my own family. And I was suppose to take care of them." Brock's eyes started to water over, and he turned to face Tracey, "You remember, what I told Mrs. Ketchum before we left into Johto, I promised her I would take care of her son. Some job I did."  
  
"Brock..." his friend said, "You know there was nothing you could do. This wasn't your fault. This wasn't anyone's fault except that bastard's. If it makes you feel better, I feel guilty too."  
  
Brock gave Tracey a surprised look. "You? But you weren't even there!"  
  
Tracey nodded, "Yeah, that's my point. I was suppose to have been his friend, and I didn't even catch his first round match. I was too busy sketching the new Sandslash that Professor Oak got in... I didn't think his first match was important, I thought I'd catch him in the next round... sadly ironic, isn't it?" Tracey's voice cracked and he stopped talking for fear of crying. Both young men then felt a hand on their shoulders, they looked up to see it Professor Oak. The dark shadows under his eyes from stress and sorrow made him look older then usual.  
  
"Boys..." He said sympathetically, "You can't do this to yourselves. It's not fair to yourselves, and its not what Ash would want. Gentlemen, there was NOTHING you could have done to stop this from happening. Tracey, you feel guilty because you weren't there. But even if you were there, what were you going to do? Stand in front of him during the match? And Brock, you feel guilty because you weren't there for him? Brock you traveled along side him, and from what I understand, you were ALWAYS there for him."  
  
Tears trickled down Brock's and Tracey's cheeks. Oak let out a sad sigh, "Blaming yourselves wont bring Ash back. I could blame myself, you know. Who do you think turned Ash onto pokemon? If I didn't get him so interested in Pokemon, he wouldn't have been there at the league for that match."  
  
It was Brock's turn to comfort, "Maybe, but I really cant imagine Ash would have been happy living a life like that."  
  
Oak nodded, "That's my point, both of you were Ash's friends, and I think if he was able to talk right now, he'd tell you both that there's nothing you could have done to make his life any better."  
  
  
  
  
  
Ironically, if Oak were able to hear Ash now, he'd be shocked by the profanity that he just muttered. Ash was just waking up from being K.O.'ed by that Psi wave. He guessed from the difference in the light coming through the one window, 2 hours had passed. Ash glanced around the cellar. Geoff was no where in sight. Maybe this would be a good time to try to sneak out. Ash started floating towards the door, but before he could get to it, Gangar appeared in front of him. Ash jumped in shock, and floated backwards, putting his hands up. "Easy there Gangar... you don't have to attack."  
  
Gangar smiled wide with his extra large mouth. Ash kept backing up and then to his shock, he floated right through Alakazam. The psychic type turned around to face his prisoner. Ash stopped in his tracks and pleaded, "LISTEN to me! This guy, Geoff, is using you. You DONT have to do what he says. He's making you do bad stuff! You don't have to be like him."  
  
Gangar and Alakazam exchanged a glance. Then looked back at the boy. "You don't LIKE hurting people do you? You're just following orders. Your just as much prisoners as I am!"  
  
Gangar frowned slightly and Alakazam lowered his spoons. Ash floated a little closer to Gangar, he then said gently, "Listen to me, I'm good friends with Professor Oak, you've heard of him, right?" Gangar nodded. "Good, if you let me out of here, you can come back to with me to my body, and we can go see him! You could live with him on his ranch, free to do whatever you wanted, not having to take orders anymore!"  
  
Tears formed in the corners of Gangar's eyes, and Ash turned to Alakazam, "Doesn't that sound much better then a life like this? All this hatred? All this violence? Come on, I really do want to help you!"  
  
Alakazam and Gangar exchanged looks again. Then Gangar broke out into waterfall like tears, and Alakazam nodded at Ash and pointed at the exit way with his spoons. The door opened telepathically. "That's GREAT you guys!" Ash said excitedly, "Come on, let's get out of here!" Ash floated up the steps, and just about got to the door when he felt an excruciating pain in his back. Ash let out a painful yell, and then fell through the steps and landed on the floor. He looked over at Gangar and Alakazam who were laughing loudly. "What... but, I thought..." Ash said weakly, realizing he must have been hit with some kind of attack, but his brain was too scrambled to figure out which one of them actually attacked. Geoff appeared at the door at the top of the steps and looked down at Ash lying there. He was wearing a long dark trench coat with a long brimmed hat. Obviously he had just come from somewhere. "Young man." He said, "Did you really think you were going to turn my pokemon against me? They are LOYAL to me, and believe me, they hate you as much as I do. You're just a play thing to them."  
  
Almost to emphasize this point, Gangar caught Ash right in this side with a powerful shadow ball attack. Ash screamed loudly and rolled on the floor. Despite the fact that his lungs were about a mile away, still in his body in fact, Ash felt like he couldn't breathe through the pain. "Your not going to pass out again, are you?" Geoff asked. The man held out a hand to Gangar, who was preparing another attack. "Just a minute Gangar, please, there's something I want to tell our young guest first."  
  
Ash struggled to get up to his knees. He didn't want this guy to see him in pain. This guy really liked to see Ash suffer, and he'd be damned if he was going to oblige him in it. Geoff stayed at the top steps, and said, "Your friends are pretty dumb, you know that?"  
  
Ash forgot about the pain and looked sharply at his kidnapper... or spiritnapper at least. "I just came from your wake. Nice affair really, everyone was really upset. Lovely flower arrangement." Geoff tossed down a rose that must have come from one of the vases. The rose floated through Ash's 'body'. Ash's expression grew darker. Geoff continued, "I was there for an entire 15 minutes, oh I was disguised of course, but no one even looked at me twice. I didn't even see any security! Pretty dumb."  
  
Ash's mind was now focused on something other the agony flowing through him, and got to his feet. Geoff continued goading, "That red head girl that you travel with... Misty, isn't it? She seemed particularly upset, almost as upset as your mom. I couldn't help but notice they're both quite attractive... I think I'll go back tomorrow for the funeral and... comfort them."  
  
Ash snapped. All he could see was red. "YOU BASTARD!!! DONT YOU TALK ABOUT THEM LIKE THAT!!!" He flew up and charged the man, with every intention to kill him. Strangle him, beat him, whatever he had to do till this horrible man was dead. But poor Ash's rage was useless, he flew right threw Geoff, turned around, and released a barrage of punches and kicks, all of them just going harmlessly through him. Geoff laughed loudly at this. "Temper, temper young man. You should be more like me. Why... at your wake, that young woman, Misty, in her tears, didn't see me standing there, and walked right into me." Geoff grinned, reached into his trenchcoat and pulled out a long dagger. "Why, I was very tempted to teach her a lesson about watching where she was going by slipping this blade right in-between her ribs. Mmmm.. That would have been sweet."  
  
Ash, not even realizing his blows weren't landing, just kept fighting. He had never felt so angry. Geoff just continued, ignoring him, "But I decided to wait. If I do it at the wake, not much room to run. I'll wait till after your spirit leaves us, lie low for a week or 2, then I'll go have some fun. Ok... enough play time... Gangar, please get this gnat away from me."  
  
Ash was blasted with a nightshade attack that, even in his rage, took the fight out of him. Ash lay there on the floor; he was starting to feel desperate. He was starting to come to grips that he was going to die. But now, he HAD to find a way out of here or his mom and Misty was going to suffer. He COULDN'T allow that! He loved both of them too much to allow that to happen. But how was he supposed to get out of here? I can't lay a hand on Geoff, and if I try to run, I get blasted by Psi and Ghost attacks, and there's no way to fight against them. If only he had Pikachu with him... he'd have a chance then. Ash lay there on the cold floor, not that in his spirit state he could feel the coldness, and he thought about Pikachu. "I wonder how my pokemon are handling this. Even worse. I wonder how my Mom is handling this." He looked out the window. It was dark now. Everyone must have left the funeral parlor by now. And tomorrow morning would be the funeral. my funeral. And after that. Ash shudderd.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED..  
  
This looks like a good spot to leave off for now. The wake is over and the funeral is tomorrow. Ash's time is running out. Thank you for reading this chapter, and if you have a moment, Please R/R my story, and keep your eyes peeled because chapter 3 is coming soon. Oh wait, never mind, its up already, please enjoy! 


	3. Trapped Souls Chapter 3: The Funeral

The wake ended, and everyone went home. Some people stayed with Oak, others stayed with Mrs. Ketchum, and others still stayed at the local pokemon center. Misty and Brock stayed with Ash's mom, although both of them slept in the living room, neither one could bear to sleep in their dead friend's room. The memories were just too painful. Misty lay there on the couch; she could hear Brock snoring softly. "Brock's trying to be a rock for all of us, but I'm glad he finally getting some sleep. He really does need it." Misty looked over at Pikachu in the corner. Misty felt so sorry for the little yellow electric mouse. Pikachu just laid there curled up. And that's basically all he'd done since the accident. Misty got up off the couch and knelt down near Pikachu and started to pet him. "I know how you feel Pikachu. I loved him too, and I miss him."  
  
Pikachu looked up at her then put his head back down. "Come on Pikachu, you've been laying there all day, you need to eat." She started to pick him up, but Pikachu shot some sparks out from his cheeks. Misty was surprised, but not shocked. Pikachu was too weak to really shock. Misty picked him up into his arms, and Pikachu didn't even bother to shock again. "Come on, lets get you some poke' chow."  
  
Misty took Pikachu into the kitchen, and was surprised to see Mrs. Ketchum sitting there, staring off into space, a cup of coffee sitting in front of her. "Oh, I'm sorry." Misty said, "I didn't realize you were up."  
  
Ash's mom forced a smile, "No, its ok dear, please, sit down."  
  
"Thank you, but I want to get Pikachu some food first." Misty then noticed that no steam was coming from the cup. She felt it and it was ice cold. "And why don't I make you some nice hot tea?"  
  
Mrs. Ketchum smiled, but didn't say anything. Misty poured a bowl of pokemon pellets for Pikachu and laid it in front of him. Pikachu just stared at it. Misty knelt down besides him and stroked his back fur gently, "Come on Pikachu, Ash wouldn't want you to starve to death."  
  
Pikachu looked up at Misty, said "pikaaa" softly and sadly, then took a small bite of food. Mrs. Ketchum watched this and said, "I know how he feels..."  
  
Misty replied, "Me too."  
  
The kettle started to whistle and Misty poured herself and Mrs. Ketchum a cup of tea. "Do you want cream, or anything?"  
  
Mrs. Ketchum shook her head no. Misty put a scoop of sugar in her tea and took a sip. Mrs. Ketchum just kept the tea in front of her, and said, "Did you hear? Professor Oak's grandson Gary is on his way back here."  
  
"He is?" Misty asked  
  
"Yes... he felt awful that he couldn't get back in time for the wake. He was all the way in Olivine City. He's been traveling all day. He called his grandfather and told him he's taking the bullet train to Saffron City, and he'll get a ride from there. He hopes to be here by 8am today."  
  
"Oh." Misty said, "They always fought, but I think they liked each other."  
  
Mrs. Ketchum laughed gently, and sadly said, "Oh they were best friends growing up. They were just competitive."  
  
"Oh yeah," Misty said, "Ash was definitely that."  
  
Silence enveloped the two. Then Mrs. Ketchum reached in her pocket and pulled out some photos. "What's that?" Misty asked.  
  
Mrs. Ketchum showed them to Misty, they were photos of Ash. "That nice boy Todd, he gave these to me, he thought I might appreciate them."  
  
Misty looked through the photos; it was bittersweet for her. "I remember this one," she said showing Ash's mom a photo of Ash after tripping, "This was when we were chasing the legendary bird type Articuno." She chuckled, "Ash was never that coordinated"  
  
Mrs. Ketchum smiled slightly. Misty continued, "You know, he did catch up with it too! Ash was amazing when it came to finding pokemon, or having pokemon find him. But what was even more amazing, anyone else in his position would have fallen over himself to catch it. But Ash didn't even think about catching it. It was just enough to meet the legendary pokemon, he didn't have to try and catch it. But Ash was like that, wasn't he?"  
  
Mrs. Ketchum smiled sadly, "Yeah, he was special." Tears started to silently flow again. "Misty, I want to thank you, and Brock. I don't think I'd be able to handle it if it wasn't for you."  
  
Misty took her hand. "You know we're here for you. We wouldn't be anywhere else."  
  
Mrs. Ketchum's tears stopped flowing, and she, "Thank you Misty, I think you should go back to bed, dear. Its another long day tomorrow."  
  
"Ok... you should too."  
  
The older woman nodded, "I will in a little... I promise." And she went back to looking at pictures of her son.  
  
Misty gave her a hug, and walked back into the living room. On the way, she noticed that Pikachu ate a little, that's good at least. She felt a little better about that. Misty laid back down on the couch. Pikachu leaped onto the couch with Misty and curled into her. Shortly after Misty drifted off into unpleasant dreamless sleep.  
  
  
  
  
  
Ash lay on the concrete floor. "My whole body aches..." he thought, then he grinned despite himself, "body... not exactly the right choice of words."  
  
Ash fought off the hopelessness. For the last day he had tried to reason with the pokemon, he tried to run through the wall, he even tried sneaking through the floor, every time he got blasted by some attack. He hated to admit it, but Gangar and Alakazam were trained really well. "As long as those two were here," Ash thought, "My chances of escape are practically zero. If only I could battle them."  
  
Ash sat up and looked around. Alakazam immediately woke up and glared at Ash as if daring him to make a move. Gangar was still asleep. Ash looked out the window, the sun was rising. Geoff had left a newspaper on the floor. He purposely left it on the page about Ash's "Death", he thought Ash would like to read it. Ash learned from it that his funeral was going to be held at 9am. It had to be almost 5am now. He had four hours to come up with a brilliant idea to save his life and warn his friends about this lunatic. Ash groaned, he hurt too much to think. He lay back down, and put his face on the newspaper, not that it offered any softness; he just went through it.  
  
"Well, at least now I know how my pokemon feel when I battle them." Ash thought. "But even when I battled them, they took blows like this all the time and they refused to give up or surrender. Well, I'll be damned if I won't try to learn from my pokemon in that aspect, I'm not going to give up either! Brave thoughts. If only I had a plan."  
  
Ash then closed his eyes. Suddenly an idea struck Ash. Ash opened his eyes quickly and then sat up, and looked at the paper. "That might work!!!" he thought. His sudden movements startled Alakazam who quickly barked, "KAZAM!" at him and held out a spoon as a warning. Ash put his hands up in defense, waiting the attack to come. A powerful Psi Bolt caught Ash dead on, driving him backwards, and Ash slipped back into unconsciousness.  
  
  
  
Morning had come, and everyone showered and dressed. Professor Oak, Todd, Duplica and Tracey came over for breakfast. Even though Brock cooked a wonderfully smelling meal, everyone just picked at it. No one seemed to have an appetite. Professor Oak and Mrs. Ketchum didn't eat a bite, just drank coffee, neither look like they got any sleep. Brock was a little worried for them, but he hoped that tonight after everything was over they'd sleep better. A knock came from the door. "Keep eating, everyone" Brock quickly said, "I'll get it." Brock went to the front door and opened it. Standing there at the doorway was Gary, looking as tired as his grandfather was. "Hi...." Brock said feeling kind of awkward to Ash's old rival, "Come on in... Would you like some breakfast?"  
  
Gary shook his head no, "Some coffee maybe though, its been a rough night."  
  
"You don't have to tell me that." Brock said, closing the door, "Last few nights have been rough. You can go on into the kitchen, everyone is in there."  
  
Gary put his dufflebag on the floor and turned to Brock. "Before I go in there, I have to ask. Did they catch the guy who did this? "  
  
Brock shook his head no. Gary's face darkened. "He'd better hope that the police catch him first. Because if I find him first" Gary pulled out a pokeball and looked at it.  
  
Brock put a hand on his shoulder. "Gary. No."  
  
"What do you mean no?" Gary asked angrily, "This bastard killed my friend, do you realize how long I've known Ash! Yeah, we were rivals and hard on each other, but that doesn't mean we weren't friends! Since we were children we planned to both become pokemon masters and finally face each other in battle to see who was best. And this guy comes along and steals Ash's life, steals his hopes and dreams." Gary hard face started to crack a little, he almost cried, but then it hardened again, "As soon as this funeral is over, I'm going off to find this guy, and I'm going to avenge my friend. This guy thinks his Gangar is tough, wait till he sees what my Umbrion can do!"  
  
Brock shook his head no. "Gary... you can't do that."  
  
"And why shouldn't I?"  
  
"Because, Ash wouldn't want you to use your pokemon like that."  
  
Gary looked like he'd been slapped. He opened his mouth and then closed it, not knowing what to say. Brock continued, "If it wasn't for Ash's beliefs, I myself would have found this son of a bitch, and let my Onix have him. But Ash never believed pokemon should be used for war or violence. And so I honor him by not."  
  
Gary's face cracked again, and Brock thought he might have seen a tear, but Gary put up his brave front again. "Well... we'll see." Brock nodded and the two went off into the kitchen.  
  
  
  
In the woods just outside the house a giant hot air balloon took roost. The balloon was in the shape of a giant Meowth's head. Jesse, James and Meowth of Team Rocket were all sitting in the balloon, and Jessie was holding a pair of binoculars. "I really can't see inside the house." Jessie said, "But from I saw yesterday, Pikachu is really depressed." Jessie put the binoculars away, and turned to her team members, "Which means THIS is a perfect time to grab him, he'll put up no resistance."  
  
James and Meowth gave her a weird look. "What?" Jessie asked.  
  
"Jessie, I know we're Team Rocket, and we're the bad guys and all..." James said, "but don't you think attacking a group of people who just lost their best friend and son, a little low, even for us?"  
  
"Grrrr..." Jessie growled, "What's wrong with you James? This could be our LAST chance at Pikachu!"  
  
"Yeah, but..." Meowth started.  
  
"BUT WHAT???" Jessie hollered.  
  
"It just don't seem right to steal a pokemon who just lost his master." Meowth said.  
  
"You know..." James said thoughtfully, "I'm going to miss that twerp. I know he always beat us..."  
  
"Yeah, I know Jimmy," Meowth said, "But ya attack someone over a hundred times, you just get used to seeing them!"  
  
"Hey, you remember when we teamed up?" James said to Meowth, "When you were brainwashed by Butch and Cassidy? Butch and Cassidy didn't stand a chance!"  
  
The two then broke down and started bawling waterfalls.  
  
Jessie flipped, "What's wrong with you two? Why are you are getting all weepy over some twerp!!!"  
  
James still waterfalling, "But he was our twerp! You can't say your not going to miss him!"  
  
"Grr..." Jessie said turning her back on her team members. She stood there staring out at Ash's house. She couldn't help but think of Ash.  
  
"Fine!" Jessie finally said, "No Pikachu stealing, but YOUR telling the boss that we failed. Now come on!"  
  
Meowth scratched his head, "Come on where?"  
  
"Well since your all so upset about the twerp's death, lets go to his funeral!"  
  
"But Jessie," James said, "We didn't say anything about that."  
  
Jessie flushed a little, "Well I did! Maybe I want to see him one last time. I may not have liked him, but he did earn my respect. You don't have a PROBLEM with that, do you?"  
  
"We1l, ok then Jessie," James agreed taking the hint, Jessie never did like to show too much emotion, "He did earn our respect, and I'd like to pay ours! But how are we going to get in? I don't think the twerp's friends will be too pleased to see us."  
  
"Hmm... Didn't think of that." Jessie said, "I guess we'll need a disguise."  
  
Meowth spoke up, "Well, I got an idea, and it should work too, as long as we're in and out."  
  
  
  
The funeral was to start at nine o' clock, but everyone was there by 8:30. It was decided everyone should get one last chance to say their respects to Ash before the mass actually started. The long line started and moved slowly as one by one people knelt down by the young boy and said their good-byes. Mrs. Ketchum was in the back of the line, and Professor Oak had an arm around her, but she wasn't consolable.  
  
The young baseball fan, Casey, made her way to Ash. She knelt down and looked his friend. "Hey Ash. It's a shame we never got that match we promised each other. I wish you could have seen how that Beedrill you gave me is doing. I'm taking care of her like I know you would have. I only met you a few times, but you taught me so much. I'm really going to miss you, and I hope you'll watch over me from heaven from time to time."  
  
Soon it was Todd's turn. He gave a tearful goodbye, and right behind him was a very odd looking Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy. Joy leaned into Jenny and said, "Jessie, I feel ridiculous dressed up like this!"  
  
Meowth spoke up from under James's nurse Joy dress, "You wanted to come here right? Well who knows who was going to show up to this thing? Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny are the only ones that have extras out there, so even if there were here, no one would look twice at an extra set of them!"  
  
"Would you two pipe down?" Jessie said, "We're next!"  
  
The trio looked down at their fallen enemy. Jessie spoke quietly, "You know twerp, if you only stuck around for a few more rounds, we would have bested you in battle eventually. But I guess we'll never find that out."  
  
James started crying as did Meowth, which looked kind of obscene under that Joy costume. Jessie started getting some tears in her eyes. "Hey, I know we may have caused you a lot of trouble during your life, but even I think you deserved better then this. You can rest easy, because I promise you this, twerp, Team Rocket is going to find this guy who did this, and god help him."  
  
James nodded, and Meowth still kept crying. Everyone was now staring at the nurse joy that had the jumping dress. "Is everything ok?" Professor Oak asked.  
  
A panicked look came over Jessie's and James's face, and quickly said, "Oh, everything is fine, just fine, but we really have to be going, bye bye!" And the trio took off for the door.  
  
Misty looked up at Brock and asked, "Was that who I think it was?"  
  
Brock nodded, "Yeah it was, I saw them when they came in, but I figured if they weren't up to any trouble they had the right to say goodbye too."  
  
Outside, Jessie, James and Team Rocket ran into the woods and got to their balloon. "Perfect" Meowth said, "They never suspected us for a second!"  
  
"Of course not, stupid," Jessie said, "We are professional actors, and Team Rocket operatives, no one can see through our disguises."  
  
"Jessie," James asked, "Were you serious about us going after the guy who whacked the twerp?"  
  
"Of course!" Jessie replied, "We have to! Because of this guy, we've lost any chance of getting Pikachu, we can't just stand by and let him get away with that!"  
  
"So that's the only reason why we're going to go after this guy?" James asked.  
  
Jessie blushed slightly, "Of course! It's. its not like I actually CARE about that twerp!"  
  
"Sure Jessie," Meowth said with a grin, "But how are we gonna find this guy? We don't know where he is, or what he looks like."  
  
"Argh, Meowth, do you ALWAYS have to worry about such minor details?" Jessie yelled, and the three sat down talking amongst themselves for a while.  
  
  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, back inside, it was Richie's turn. "Hey buddy, long time no see." Richie said awkwardly, "You know, I always thought we'd get another chance at battling each other. I bet you got much stronger then me. Ash, I really hope that where ever you are right now, you wont forget that we're friends forever."  
  
Richie eyes started to water as he walked away. Duplica was next but she was too overcome with emotion to say anything. Gary stepped up next. "Ash, I'm going to miss you buddy. I can't believe that you're really gone. I really hope you knew that all those times I called you a loser, I really didn't mean it. I was just pushing you to be as great a master as I knew you could be." Gary's had face didn't change, he was fighting back the tears, although one or two started to leak through. "Ash, I want you to know that Brock talked some sense into me, I'm not going to go after the guy who did this to you, I know that's not what you'd want. But I am going to strive to be a true master, and when I make it, it'll be like we both made it. Goodbye my friend."  
  
It was Tracy's turn next. He took out some sketches he drew of Pikachu, and laid it in the coffin with him. That way Ash would always have his friend with him, no matter where he was.  
  
Brock came up next, he was trying to look composed, but he knew he wasn't pulling the look off. "Ash. you were my best friend, and you always will be. I have something for you." Brock reached into his vest and pulled out Ash's belt, complete with his pokeballs. Brock laid it in the coffin with him, and continued, truly believing his friend could somehow hear him. "Don't worry, about your pokemon, they're not in those balls, Misty, Professor Oak, and myself are going to take good care of them. You don't have to worry about them you can rest easy. I just thought you might need these wherever your new journey takes you. Ash, we'll never forget you."  
  
Brock walked off, his face wet with tears. It was now Misty's turn. She walked to the coffin, holding Pikachu. "Oh Ash." She said softly, "I cant believed this happened, and I never got to tell you how I felt about you. I know I was always hard on you, and I know I always told you the reason I was following you was because of that bike. It wasn't true. I followed you because I cared about you. Because I liked you. Because I loved you. I'm so sorry I never got to tell you that. I'm going to miss you. We all are." Then she leaned over and gave her deceased lover a kiss on his cheek. She stood back up and looked startled. His skin. why was it so warm? She had prepared herself for it to be cold and clammy.  
  
"Pikachu, am I crazy?" She lowered the pokemon to his master's cheek, and the yellow mouse rubbed its electric sacks against Ash's face, its way of showing affection. As Pikachu was rubbing, she asked him, "Pikachu, does Ash feel warm to you?" Pikachu chattered up a storm at Misty. Misty started to feel lightheaded, this wasn't right. Something was really wrong here.  
  
Brock came up to her, and tried to comfort her, "Misty, are you ok? What's wrong?"  
  
Misty looked into Brock's eyes, her own filling with tears, "Brock!" She said panicky, "Brock, I think something is very wrong here. I don't think Ash is dead!"  
  
Brock's face fell, he knew Misty was taking this hard, but this wasn't healthy. "Misty." He said softly, "We all miss Ash."  
  
Misty shoved Brock back hard, and yelled, "DON'T patronize me Brock! I'm not crazy!"  
  
Everyone in the church started to stare at Misty and murmur. Misty didn't care. "Feel for yourself Brock!!!"  
  
"Misty. I'm sorry, but Ash is dead." Brock tried again.  
  
"FEEL HIM!" Misty shrieked.  
  
Mrs. Ketchum buried her head into Professor Oak's shoulder and started to weep. "Misty. your upsetting Ash's mom" Brock whispered to her softly, he took her hand, "Maybe we should step outside, get some fresh air." As he took a step Pikachu leaped in front of him.  
  
"PIKA!!" It said angrily, and sent out a warning shock.  
  
"Pikachu!" Brock said angrily, "Ok. Misty. for you. I'll feel him."  
  
Brock walked over to the casket, and took Ash's hand into his. It did feel warm. Was it the lamps in church? Was he near a heating duct? Brock looked around.  
  
"SEE!!!" Misty yelled, "I'm NOT crazy."  
  
"No one said you were crazy Misty." Brock said, "You're right, he DOES feel warm. But Misty, there has to be a reason for it." He moved in on Misty and whispered as to not upset Ash's mother. "Misty. he does feel warm. but he also doesn't have a pulse. He didn't show any brainwave activity. He's not breathing at all. He's not alive. We all wish he was."  
  
Misty wept harder then she ever had, and leaned onto Brock for support. Brock walked her back to her pew and sat her down. He sat next to her, and let Misty cry on his shoulder. He didn't want to say anything to Misty, because she was upset enough, but something was bothering Brock now.  
  
Ash really DID feel too damned warm for a body that'd been dead for 2 days now. No embalming either, so Ash's skin should have felt drier too, but it was still moist. "Am I crazy?" Brock thought, "No, because Misty felt it too. Am I just too tired? That could be it. but I don't know. After the funeral I'll talk to Oak about, I'm not going to upset Mrs. Ketchum or Misty any more then they already are. There's got to be a rational explanation for it. But I'm not going to let them move his body one inch until I hear it."  
  
There was a rational explanation for it. But unfortunately the only people that knew it were about a mile from the funeral, and they were certainly not going to share it with anyone. Ash lifted his head up and shook it to get the 'cobwebs' out. Then he panicked, "How long was I out for?" He looked to the window. It was later in the day, the funeral HAD to have started by now. He had to get out of here, and he had to get out of here NOW. Once they moved his body he'd never be able to find it in time. He'd have no clue where it was moved to, and only about 2 hours to find it before the autopsy started and. Ash stopped that train of thought, he really didn't want to think about it.  
  
Before he was drilled with that last Psi Beam, Ash had started to formulate a plan. "These two Pokemon, they're tough, and they're loyal, and apparently they hate me as much as their owner does." They shared a lot of traits with their owner. Ash couldn't help but wonder is pride one of those traits they shared. "If so. I might just have a way out."  
  
Ash looked around the room. Gangar and Alakazam were on full alert, but their master was no where in sight. "I bet he's at my funeral." Ash thought to himself, "That's good, this will be easier if he's not here." Ash floated over to the newspaper. Gangar and Alakazam watched his moved very closely. Ash smiled at them. "So, I guess you guys won huh? I'd imagine the funeral is almost over, and soon it'll all be over for me."  
  
The two Pokemon guards stared at Ash. Ash just kept on talking, "Yep. you two really beat me good. Well one good thing, the paper is saying that I won my final match. A Disqualification. Although it also says that with such loser Pokemon my opponent had, there was no way I was going to lose anyway."  
  
Gangar and Alakazam eyes narrowed at Ash. "KAZAM!" The psychic pokemon barked angrily at Ash. Ash grinned, "Oh come on, you can't complain about that. You two are decent pokemon, but let's face it, my Bulbasaur kicked your ass. And you Gangar, you were too chicken to take me on."  
  
Much to Ash's pleasure this really pissed off the pokemon. Gangar was hopping up and down screaming at Ash, and Alakazam was stomping its feet. "And those attacks you've hit me with." Ash continued, "What second rate cheap shots. I've taken worse shots from my Pikachu. when it was sick."  
  
That did it. Gangar leaped up and fired a powerful shot at Ash, who was expecting it this time, and managed to leap out of the way just in time. "Nice aim there Gangar, you couldn't even pitch for the Electabuzz baseball team!"  
  
Gangar teleported away and appeared right near Ash, and fired off a Shadow Ball. Ash dodged to the right, but the attack grazed him. Ash spun a little but managed to regain his balance. "What was that suppose to be?" Ash goaded, "A test shot in case you ever have to fight a level 4 Ratatta? Well I gotta be honest with you, I think if you attacked like that you'd lose!"  
  
Suddenly Ash caught a blue beam coming from behind. He quickly flew upwards, the Psi Beam fired by Alakazam just missing him. "Damn, you can't even hit me with a cheap shot. Maybe I should have told my Bulbasaur to take it easy on you. A weakling like you is probably still hurt from that battle."  
  
Alakazam saw red, it fired off Psi waves left and right. Ash did his best trying to avoid them, while still avoiding Gangar's NightShade. "It's working!" Ash thought, "Now if I can just survive a few more seconds."  
  
Ash floated down in between the two pokemon, and gave them both a very obscene gesture.  
  
"ALAKAZAM!!!" The psychic pokemon bellowed loudly releasing its most powerful attack  
  
"GANGAR!!!!!" Bellowed the other doing the same.  
  
Ash said a silent prayer that this would work without killing him as he dove out of the way as fast and has hard as he could. Thanks to a little luck, Ash's plan couldn't have worked more perfectly. Alakazam's Psibeam slammed into Gangar while at the same time Gangar's Shadow Ball caught Alakazam dead to rights. Both pokemon were driven back to the floor. Ash got up and looked to see if it worked. He was shocked to see that Alakazam and Gangar were still standing! Ash felt a cold shiver of panic rise up his spine.  
  
Suddenly, both pokemon groaned and collapsed to the floor out cold. Ash did a loop de loop in the air. "YES!!!" He cheered, "Thank god I remembered that Gangar and Alakazam are strong against each other." Ash remembered Brock teaching him which pokemon were strong against which kinds. "Thank you Brock! When I see you I swear I'm going to wrap my arms around you and give you a kiss!"  
  
Ash then flew straight up through the door, and right out of the house. From the outside Ash could see the place was really a shack, and it wasn't that far from Pallet Town! If he flew quickly he could be there in 10 minutes. Ash took off like a bolt, "Gee, I hope I'm not late to my own funeral!" he thought.  
  
To be concluded...  
  
Will Ash be late for his own funeral? And Brock and Misty are starting to suspect that something's up! Will they be able to do anything about it? Whats in store for our disembodied hero? Please review! Good news, the final chapter 4 is up! So press on dear readers... press on... 


	4. Trapped Souls Chapter 4: The End

Hi all faithful readers, I hope you all have, having, had, a great Thanksgiving. And without further ado, I'm proud to present to you, without further interruptions, the final chapter of "Trapped Souls".  
  
The funeral had come to an end. Everyone was saying what a lovely service it was. Brock headed over to Professor Oak through the lingering crowd, Misty close by his side. "Professor?" Brock asked when he finally made it to him, "Can I talk to you for a moment."  
  
"Certainly Brock." The Professor responded.  
  
Brock looked over at Mrs. Ketchum, who wasn't looking much better. He leaned up and whispered, "I don't want to upset her, could we talk over there for a minute?"  
  
Professor Oak gave him a quizzical look, but then said to the grieving mother, "Could you excuse me for just one moment, I'll be right back."  
  
Mrs. Ketchum nodded and sat down on one of the pews. When Brock thought that they were out of listening range, he said to the Professor, "This is going to sound crazy sir. But I think something's wrong with Ash."  
  
Professor Oak's features darkened slightly, "Son. Is that supposed to be funny? Personally I don't think its in good taste at all. Of COURSE something is wrong with him, he's dead."  
  
Brock shook his head, "No, I don't mean it like that. Listen, Misty gave Ash a kiss before, and she thought he felt warm."  
  
Brock received a strange look, but Oak didn't interrupt him. "I know what you're thinking, It's the grief, I did too, but I did feel Ash's hand. It DID feel warm. And his skin hasn't dried at all."  
  
"Brock." The Professor said gently, "Is that all? The heating lamps could have."  
  
Brock interrupted, "No. I don't think so. I can feel it in my gut, something's not right, and I'm not going to let him be taken away until he gets re-examined right here, right now."  
  
"That's crazy!" Oak reprimanded, "You can't possibly think."  
  
Brock interrupted again, "I don't know what to think, but Professor, with all due respect, you're not going to talk me out of it, and I didn't tell you because I wanted you to. I told you so you could take Mrs. Ketchum away, I don't think she needs to see this."  
  
"I know you miss your friend, I miss him too." Oak tried again.  
  
"I do. But that's not the point." Brock interrupted for the third time, "I feel that there's something wrong, and someone is going to check Ash out again before he gets his autopsy."  
  
Professor Oak studied Brock for a moment. "Ok.," He finally said, "If its that important to you, I'm sure we can find a doctor here to check Ash one last time."  
  
A man in from the back of the church came up to Brock. He was wearing a dark trenchcoat and long brimmed hat. He kept the hat covering his face and said in a thick Russian accent, "Perhaps I could be helping you? After all, I am being a physician."  
  
  
  
Ash soared over Pallet Town. He'd been pulled out of his body one other time, and the feeling of flying is simply indescribable. From up here he could see the entire town of Pallet. "Hey, I can see my house from up here. and over there is Professor Oak's laboratory. And there's. there's. a giant Meowth balloon. I can't believe that they'd try to steal Pikachu at my own wake!!!" Ash shook his head in disbelief, "That's a whole new low. But never mind them now, there's something more important to take care of now."  
  
Ash flew over the town till he spied the church. Ash let out a deep sigh of relief when he saw that the parking lot was filled. "YES!" He cheered, "I'm not too late!" He flew downwards and right through the church's roof. And he was really shocked at what he saw.  
  
Brock stood there in front of the coffin in a loud argument with a man in a dark trenchcoat.  
  
"That outfit looks familiar" Ash thought. That guy was Geoff! He was wearing a fake chin, and a fake nose. Plus his eyes were a different color now, and his hair was graying, but Ash didn't have any doubts that it was Geoff in disguise. After someone tortures you for a day, you find it hard to forget what they look like.  
  
Ash flew upwards and tried to stay out of sight, Ash knew no one could see him in his ghostly form, except for Geoff, thanks to his enhanced psychic powers. "That son of a bitch came to my funeral." Ash thought to himself. Ash didn't want to rush down into his body. Ash wasn't sure how long it would take for him to wake up. When this happened back in that ghost tower a few years ago, I woke immediately, but then, I was only out for 30 minutes or so. Who knows how long it will take now that it's been over 2 days. And if Geoff saw him re-enter his body, who knows what he'd do. He might dissect me with that blade of his. Ash shuddered at the thought. Being cut up alive, but not able to move to do anything about it. And even worse, what would happen if his friends tried to stop him! It was a chance he couldn't take. So Ash floated near the ceiling, hiding behind a beam, waiting his moment.  
  
Back down on the floor, Brock was arguing with the man Ash knew to be Geoff. "Look, Doctor" Brock argued, "He feels warm to me, you can't tell me you don't feel it."  
  
Geoff frowned more, he was getting nervous, and he wasn't confident how long he could keep Ash trapped in his basement. The boy proved his resourcefulness more then once. He had to get the body out of here and disposed of. "You need to be listening to me young man." Geoff explained in his fake accent, "I am telling you, the body isn't warm. I am a professional, I can be telling this thing better then you can be. It's only heat that's collected on his skin from the heating of the lamps above him. Inside, he's ice cold."  
  
From up above Ash let out a slight groan, "Oh Brock, you've got to be kidding me. you cant tell that his accent is fake? Heck, I'm dead and I can tell!"  
  
Brock refused to budge, "You're telling me Ash's is cold as ice inside? How could you tell? Do you have a meat thermometer?"  
  
"I just can be telling such a thing, It is coming with years of experience." Geoff tried to explain, "Be taking a good look at him. No pulse. No heartbeat. No breathing. You pleased to be telling me how he could be alive?"  
  
Brock couldn't help but realize that the man made perfect sense. But deep inside Brock his guts were screaming at him that something was really wrong here. "I've got a question for you," Brock said taking a step towards the man, "Who are you? You don't look much like a family member, and I know I've never met you before, But, you look very familiar."  
  
Geoff started to sweat, he put up his hands in defense, "Me? Familiar? Maybe you are seeing me at the wake yesterday, or maybe you are seeing me at local hospital where I am working?"  
  
Misty stepped up next to Brock, she had kept silent through all of this, but like Brock she couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong. She now posed a question, "Then why are you here?"  
  
"This is getting dangerous," Geoff thought to himself, then said out loud, "Because I am reading of this tragedy in the papers, and I wanted to be paying my respects," Geoff then turned more forceful, hoping that they will back down to authority, "But now I see this young boy's memory being disgraced. You two are just hurting everyone that is here's feelings and I won't let you drag this out any longer, the body is coming with me to the morgue. If you say one more word, I shall call be calling the police."  
  
Geoff took a step to the body but Brock pulled out a pokeball and held it towards Geoff. "You take one more step towards him and you'll be standing face to face with my Onix." Misty then shouted, "And you won't even have to worry about a pokemon from me, you lay a finger on Ash and I'll kick your balls so far up your throat you'll be able to enter the Pallet Town Choir."  
  
Geoff took a step back, sweat trickled down his face. He wasn't sure which threat scared him more. "This is ridiculous." He thought, "I haven't come this far in my plan to be thwarted by two kids."  
  
"I am going to be giving you one more opportunity to be backing away." Geoff declared, "I will call the police on you have you two arrested for preventing a doctor from aiding a patient." He was making up the charge and he hoped it sounded official enough. Misty and Brock exchanged a meaningful glance, then looked back at Geoff. Neither one budged an inch.  
  
Ash could have shed a tear, if his eyes weren't 20 feet below him still in his eye sockets. "I can't believe how much my friends care about me! Risking a serious charge like that!" Ash was starting to get impatient, Geoff was still staring at his body. "I wish Misty or Brock would follow through on their threats," Ash thought, "Either one would keep him distracted enough for me to easily jump back in."  
  
Then a voice behind Geoff yelled out, "When you call the police, make sure you tell him its THREE people that's preventing a doctor from aiding a patient. And be sure to tell them that the patient you refer to is dead already."  
  
Geoff turned around sharply to see whom the insolent tone belonged to. "Then you can be joining your friends in jail! This body must be brought to the morgue as quickly as possible or we won't be finding out what was killing him."  
  
"Oh thank you Gary!" Ash cheered, when he saw Geoff turn to face Gary. Ash didn't waste a second zipping downward straight into his body. "I really hope this works, or I am SO screwed!" Ash thought seconds before making contact.  
  
If you were to ask Ash what it felt like to slip back into his body, he probably couldn't tell you, mainly because it didn't feel like anything. One-minute Ash felt like he was floating above himself, the next he felt like he was laying on his back in the coffin. A rush of relief flooded Ash, as he realized he must be back in his own body. The relief faded when he realized he couldn't move.  
  
Ash tried not to panic. "It's probably a side effect of being out of my skin for so long." He tried to reason. Ash could hear the argument heating up between his friends and Geoff. But he couldn't see anything, he couldn't get his eyes open. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. His heart was beating, that's a plus. Ash then tried to take a deep breath. The relief that faded before came flooded back as he managed to fill his lungs with air.  
  
Ash tried to open his eyes again. This time he succeeded. He winced slightly, his eyes were closed for so long it took them a little while to adjust to the light. Everything slowly went from blurry, then to fuzzy, then finally to clear. "Now, I just gotta sit up." Ash heard Geoff's tone become increasingly angrier, and he knew he had to sit up quickly or someone was going to get hurt.  
  
"CHILDREN!" Geoff said, starting to lose his phony accent, "Please REMOVE yourselves, or you WILL be joining your friend in the coffin!"  
  
Misty gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, then exclaimed, "Your no doctor, who are you???" Geoff looked at the young girl with a smirk, "You stupid little bitch... you really don't know do you?" He let out an evil laugh, "You're ALL pretty stupid, aren't you?"  
  
Brock shook his head, his mind was racing, 'this is crazy,' the thought, 'what's going on here, who is this guy?' Brock took a step towards the guy and demanded, "Who are you? Why did you come to this funeral?"  
  
"Well who I am, is obvious" And Geoff removed his hat, and his fake beard and mustache, "Do I look familiar now?"  
  
Everyone gasped, but the surprises weren't done yet!  
  
"*cough* *cough*" The noise came from behind Brock and Misty who spun around to see their friend sitting up, Ash weakly said, "Apparently he's come here to see his handy work, isn't that right Geoff?"  
  
This was one of those moments where everything froze. Everyone had a look of shock on their face, even Ash's friends who would normally be overjoyed to see their friend alive was frozen with shock. But none looked as shocked as Geoff did. The moment ended, and things seemed to start moving again, but no one seemed to know what to do. Even Geoff stood there and scowled.  
  
The first to snap out of it was Mrs. Ketchum. "MY BABY!!!" She cried out, "Your alive!!!" She wept hard as she moved in and hugged her son, still sitting in the casket. Misty and Brock quickly joined her. Pikachu jumped up onto his shoulder and hugged his head. "But.. but how??" Brock asked, what everyone was thinking, but he was the only one that still had his voice.  
  
Ash looked at Geoff who was backing away. "Sorry Brock, no time for that now" Ash shrugged off his mother and Misty and got to his feet and pointed at Geoff, "STOP HIM!!! Don't let him leave!"  
  
Geoff turned and tried to leave, but ran into Gary. "Look," the young trainer said, "I don't know what's going on, but your not going anywhere!" Gary reached into his pocket to pull out a pokeball, but Geoff was much faster. All Ash could see was a quick swipe of light and a spurt of red. Then it registered.  
  
Geoff had pulled out a knife and slashed Gary's arm. Gary grabbed him arm, and Geoff shoved the kid to the side into a pew. With no one to stop him, the villain took off out the door and yelled as he left, "Don't worry boy, this isn't goodbye, its just see you later... unless I see one of your friends first!"  
  
Ash saw red, and this time he knew he was flesh enough to do something about it. Ash grabbed his pokeball belt out of the coffin and took off down the isle of the church and out the door, Pikachu holding on tight. He passed by Gary, who was sitting and bleeding, Ash ordered as he passed, "SOMEONE GET HELP HERE!!! I'll be back shortly!!!" He burst through the door, just in time to see Geoff take off down the street in his blue compact car. "PIKACHU!!! Thunderbolt!!!"  
  
Pikachu launched the attack quickly but Geoff drove out of range just in time. Ash punched his fist into the palm of his hand. "Damnit!" he thought, "I can't let him get away."  
  
Ash paced around looking for a way to catch up with Geoff. Ash scowled, "I have to go after Geoff... ... ... and I just thought of how I could!!!" And started down the road to his house. He only got a few steps before he heard, "Wait up Ash!"  
  
Ash heard it, and knew the voice without turning around it. It was Brock, and Misty was probably with him. He didn't turn around though because he wanted them to think he didn't hear them. He ran harder, glad he's faster then they were. "I cant risk their lives Pikachu" Ash said to his loyal pokemon, although he was talking to himself just as much as he was to Pikachu. "This is my fight, Geoff threatened to kill Misty, and I'd rather forfeit my life if it means stopping him and keeping my friends safe! I'd rather not risk your life either Pikachu, but I need your help, and the help of all my pokemon!"  
  
Meanwhile, Jessie, James, and Meowth were looking quite depressed. Jessie sighed, "Alright, so maybe coming up with a plan to find this guy maybe harder then we thought." Suddenly Jessie started to cry, "I can't believe our little twerp is gone. Its not really like he was such a bad kid." James sniffed into his hankie, "It's just so sudden... Its almost like I can still hear him..."  
  
As if on cue... Ash burst through some bushes right in front of them, "GREAT!" He yelled, "I found it!"  
  
James screams loudly and leaps into Jessie arms, and Meowth leaps into James's arms. "A GHOST!!!" James screeches. "We tormented him through life, so he's going ta haunt us now that he's dead!!!" Meowth wails.  
  
Ash paid no attention them, he was too focused. The young trainer leaps into Team Rocket's hot air balloon. "So how do we move this thing?" Ash asked, "Any ideas Pikachu?"  
  
Pikachu hopped around a bit and pointed to a rope, Ash looked and it and gave it a tug. The fire started to burn and the balloon took off. "Alright! We're moving!" Ash said, "Next stop... Geoff!!!"  
  
Team Rocket watched this with opened mouths. "That ghost!!!" Jessie yelled, "He's stealing our transportation!"  
  
Meowth scratched his chin, "You know what I think... I don't think that twerp was really dead..."  
  
"Well dead or alive, he's not getting away with stealing our balloon!" James yelled and took a flying leap for the balloon, missing it by a good 4 or 5 feet and landing on his face. "Ouch..." he muttered into the ground.  
  
"James!" Meowth scowled, "Get up! We gotta go after him!"  
  
Jessie points over, "We can take those bikes over there..."  
  
  
  
Ash floated high over the town of Pallet, and soon he was over the outskirts. "Where is he?" Ash said to himself, "I was in such a hurry when I left, I'm not totally sure how far away Geoff's place is!"  
  
Ash leaned over the side a little bit and glanced around in all directions. Finally, Ash caught a glance of the house where he was kept hostage. "There Pikachu. We have to go down..." Pikachu hopped around the rim of the basket. Ash tugged on a few cords. The balloon swayed but refused to go down.  
  
"Damnit, we have to get down there!" Ash complained. Pikachu, worried about his master, because the poor pokemon had never seen his master this riled up, pointed to the correct rope. "Thanks," Ash said and tugged on the rope. The balloon dropped down slowly and landed softly just a few meters from Geoff's front door. Ash eyes narrowed glaring at the house. "There it is Pikachu. Are you ready old buddy?"  
  
Pikachu, who wanted revenge just as much, nodded, "Pika!" and released small static shocks from its cheeks. "Alright..." Ash said, "Let's do this!"  
  
Ash heart was racing as he walked up to the front door. He tried the doorknob, and to his surprise, the door was open. Ash crept into the building quietly, the place looked run down before, but now it looked like it had been ransacked. Drawers were pulled apart, shelves were torn down, and even the carpet was torn up.  
  
Geoff came out of a back room muttering to himself, holding a large briefcase, "I've got to get out here, that little bastard will have the cops here any moment now."  
  
Ash sweatdropped, "Police... probably should have had someone call them..." he thought to himself, "too late now I guess..." Then out loud he said, "Going somewhere?"  
  
Geoff's head snapped up shocked, "You!" he snarled. Then oddly a change came over Geoff's face. "You came back... not very bright are you. And here I thought I'd have to wait months before I got a chance to kill you, and here you come walking into my house alone."  
  
Ash tried to act brave, "What makes you think I'm alone?" he bluffed.  
  
The villain put his briefcase down and took a few steps to the right, nearing the kitchen. "You don't have to be a psychic to know your alone, boy..." Geoff said smirking, "You wouldn't be standing there by yourself if you brought someone else with you. You really are stupid, aren't you? Getting your life back only to throw it away by coming here." Geoff reached into his pocket and pulled out a pokeball, "Scyther... you didn't get to play with our guest before... here's your chance."  
  
Scyther came out of its ball and held its blade like arms up menacingly. Ash took a step back and said, "It's a little different this time Geoff," Ash said boldly, "This time I have my pokemon with me, and as we saw at our little match back at the Indigo League, my pokemon can kick your pokemon's asses, any time." With that Ash took a pokeball off his belt, "Bayleaf, I need you now!" And Ash threw his pokeball...  
  
...which landed on the floor and opened up, completely empty. Ash stared at it for a second. Then frowned. He pulled two other pokeballs off his belt. "Cyndaquil? Totodile?" Again, both pokeballs were empty. "Gee..." Ash said sarcastically with a hint of worry and panic in his voice, "Would have been nice to know that they were empty BEFORE I came into this psycho's house..."  
  
Geoff threw his head back and laughed out loud. He continued laughing as he pointed to Ash, a sign to his Scyther to attack. Scyther moved forward with lightning fast speed swinging its large blade-like arm at Ash's head. The young trainer quickly dove out of the way, just in time. Not missing a beat, the large bug turned on its heels and dove at Ash.  
  
Ash, now on his side, rolled out of the way, and watched as Scyther's blade tore right through the carpet and threw up splinters of wood from the floor. Geoff who'd stopped laughing ordered, "Scyther, quick, use your false swipe!"  
  
Ash who was stumbling onto his feet, threw himself out of the way again, this time the attack was a little too close and sliced off the tie he was wearing. Ash gulped realize how close he just came to losing his head. Scyther put too much into this attack though.  
  
Not being slowed by Ash's body like it thought it would, Scyther's attack slashed right through the door and its frame. Unfortunately for the attacking pokemon, its blade became embedded in the rotted wood. Ash rolled to his back to face Scyther and pointed at it, "Pikachu, quickly! THUNDERBOLT ATTACK!!!"  
  
Pikachu leaped up and unleashed a powerful electric attack, putting all its frustrations and pain of the last few days into it. The blast of energy slammed into the stuck Scyther and blew it right through the door, tearing down half of the front wall with it. Pikachu landed gently to its feet, poised for another attack.  
  
Which wasn't necessary, Scyther, trapped under the broken wood that was once the front wall, was out cold. Ash slowly got up looking at Scyther making sure it was down. However, Ash shouldn't have been looking in that direction. From behind he heard a loud bang, and next thing Ash knew was that he was laying on his stomach, with a sharp pain near his temple. "Oh shit...," he thought panicking, "I've been shot!"  
  
Ash put his hand to where the pain was, and felt the warmth of blood. He could feel his heart racing, "I've been shot, I've been shot," is all Ash could think of for a moment. After a second though, reality set in and Ash realized that he'd only been grazed.  
  
Its really amazing how fast your mind can cope when it really as too. Ash rolled to his side and brought himself up to his knees. Fortunately, when Ash fell, he had the good grace of mind to throw himself behind the couch, out of firing range. Ash peeked around corner of the couch, and found himself staring into the eyes of Alakazam.  
  
"Wahh!" Ash cried out, crawling backwards away from the pokemon. Geoff laughed again, obviously enjoying himself. He held the gun in his left hand and said, "You know, I think killing you is actually more fun this way." he took aim again.  
  
But before he could squeeze the trigger, Pikachu blasted the villain with a thunderbolt, driving the man backwards. Pikachu leapt onto Geoff's chest and start biting him, all the while releasing electricity into him. Geoff swore loudly in pain screamed, "ALAKAZAM! Get this thing OFF ME!!!"  
  
Pikachu didn't have time to react because Alakazam teleported right to Geoff's side and slammed Pikachu with a powerful Psi-beam. Pikachu was driven off its enemy's chest and up into the air. "Augh! Pikachu!" Ash called out diving to catch his airborne pokemon.  
  
In a move that would make Jerry Rice proud, Ash caught Pikachu in mid air, and landed on his back protecting his pokemon. Geoff snorted, "Nice catch, but playtime is over. Alakazam, please use psychic power to keep Ash pinned down. Gangar, please use soul steal again. Once you're out of your body... I'll be able to really take my time and make your death wonderfully painful."  
  
Ash found himself stuck to the floor, he struggled but couldn't get up. Pikachu, laying on his chest, was obviously having the same problem. "Damn you!" Ash said, squirming trying to break free of the psychic pokemon's mental grip. He could see Gangar drawing in close, getting ready for the same attack that "killed" him last time.  
  
Ash couldn't take his eyes off the large Gangar, staring into its burning eyes. "Nooooooooo!" Ash cried out as Gangar released its attack, at first all Ash could see was the pure white light, then his whole world went... blue???  
  
"Wobbuffet! Counter Attack NOW!!!" Ash heard a female voice cry out. "Weezing, smoke screen!" A male's voice called out.  
  
Two things happened in that moment. First, Weezing's smoke covered Alakazam, disturbing it enough to release Ash. Ash took this moment to get to his feet to see what's going on. Ash quickly realized the blue thing in front of him was wobbuffet, and that Jessie, James and Meowth, of Team Rocket!  
  
The other thing that happened was Jessie's Wobbuffet countered the attack Gangar unleashed. The white light u-turned from the blue pokemon and slammed into Gangar. The attack had a devastating effect on the ghost pokemon, being only soul, no body. Gangar moaned and collapsed to the floor, no will to fight remaining.  
  
Pikachu was free also, who wasted no time to blast Alakazam with a powerful thunder attack. This might not have been enough to stop the extremely powerful psychic-type, but Pikachu wasn't the only one attack. "Arbok, Poison Sting!" Jessie ordered her giant snake pokemon. The combined attacks were enough to drive the pokemon into unconsciousness.  
  
While this was happening, Geoff was irate, "who were these interlopers?" he thought to himself. Ash knew who these two were, but he couldn't figure out WHY they were helping him, but right now, he really didn't care. Something caught Ash's eyes on the floor. Taking advantage of the chaos, Ash drove across the room and grabbed the gun Geoff dropped, back when Pikachu attacked him.  
  
Geoff saw what Ash was doing but was just a second too late. Ash scooped the gun up, spun around on his back and aimed the gun at Geoff's face. "DON'T MOVE!" Ash growled at him. Geoff's face fell as he stared down the barrel of his own gun.  
  
Jessie, James, Meowth and Pikachu also froze. Ash slowly got up to his feet, not taking his eyes off Geoff. "You ok Pikachu?" Ash asked. Pikachu cried out "Pika!!" and leapt onto its owner's shoulders. Ash smiled. "Good, close call there, huh?"  
  
Ash took a few steps back, keeping the gun trained on Geoff who stood there with his hands up, and a very sour expression on his face. James wailed, "Oh, its so sweet, the twerp is still alive, and he's got his Pikachu..."  
  
Jessie grinned evilly, "...till now... the way I see it, he's a little busy right now with that scum over there... So twerp, I don't think you have much choice then to hand over that Pikachu!"  
  
Ash's face fell, "You have GOT to be kidding me..."  
  
Meowth laughed out loud, "Hey, we got standards, we couldn't steal a pokemon who's just lost his master... but now that we know your alive, what better chance is there?"  
  
Ash turned his head slightly to glare at them. "You ARE joking right..."  
  
Team Rocket were surprised at the subtle power in the kid's voice. Ash continued, "I was attacked and had my soul ripped from my body, and brought here for what I'm guessing to be at least 48 hours, during which I was tortured painfully. Pikachu has spent this time mourning my death. Now I'm back in my body. And after being tortured, I'm in a very bad mood. So is Pikachu. So what you have here is, me, Ash Ketchum, holding a semi- automatic weapon, extremely pissed off and just LOOKING for a way to vent. And you've got Pikachu, a walking powerpack, in a very grumpy mood, also just itching to vent. Now since you saved my life I'll give you a chance... do you REALLY think you want to go after Pikachu today?"  
  
Ash narrowed his eyes as he finished, and glared at Team Rocket, who began to sweat. Jessie, turning a slight pale color, stammered, "You know what... maybe this is a bad time..."  
  
"You think?" Ash growled  
  
James took a step to the giant hole in the wall, "You know... we'll just be going..."  
  
"Good ta see yer alive kid!" Meowth said, following its Teammates lead.  
  
"Yeah... good thinking," Ash said. Ash saw the balloon take off. "PIKAPI!!!" Pikachu cried out. Ash turned around just in time to see Geoff charging him swinging something at his head. Just in time to see it, but not to dodge it. It was actually a lamp that Geoff smashed into Ash's skull, the entire glass base shattering as it crashed into the boy's skull. Ash dropped to his knees, then onto his back, his world started to grow fuzzy. He noticed Pikachu laying next to him, it looked like it was out cold. Ash also realized he dropped the gun, but couldn't tell where it was.  
  
Geoff dropped down to his knees, and wrapped his hands around Ash's throat. Ash's eyes went wide and struggled against the larger man. Ash couldn't take his eyes off Geoff's snarling face. Ash could feel his world grow dim... "after all this, Geoff was going to kill me anyway" Ash thought, "And there's no one else to make a last minute rescue this time."  
  
Ash squirmed against Geoff's grip, but he couldn't break free. Ash could see his loved one's faces pass before his eyes. His mother, her sweet face. Brock, and his stern knowing gaze. Pikachu, and all his pokemon, in all their powerful glory. Finally the last face to appear in front of him was Misty's her eyes sparkling. "I never got to tell her how I felt" Ash lamented, the world growing dimmer. But despite that his world was dimming, Misty's eyes were still shining... no... not shining... glinting? Glinting? Ash thought. Ash fought his brain to work, the hallucination of Misty's face went away, but the glinting was still there.  
  
Ash quickly realized that the glinting was the light reflecting off the blade of Geoff's knife, hidden just inside the breast pocket of his jacket. Ash in one last desperate act, reached up and grabbed the knife. Before Geoff even noticed, Ash plunged the blade deep into Geoff's shoulder.  
  
Geoff let out a wail of pain, and let go of his grip on Ash's throat. Ash gasped loudly drawing in air and clutching his throat. Without even consciously realizing it, Ash rolled on top Geoff and wrapped his hands around his throat.  
  
Anger overwhelmed Ash, he was beyond feeling pain. He knew he was bleeding from his temple, where the bullet grazed him. He only knew this because of the blood dripping onto Geoff's face. No pain, only anger. He knew his head must have a solid lump from that shot Geoff gave him. No pain, only anger. He knew his throat must be swollen after nearly being choked to death. But again, no pain, only fierce rage.  
  
Ash had never felt so angry in his life. Rage poured from every fiber of his being. He squeezed his hands tighter around Geoff's neck, the man was starting to turn blue. Ash could taste blood in his mouth, he was biting his lip. Ash grinned slightly as Geoff's eyes glazed over... "Its almost over", Ash thought. Blood was pouring down the side of his face from his wound.  
  
Ash then became aware of something tugging on his jacket's sleeve. Ash turned his head slightly to see his Pikachu, haven woken up from being hit before. Tears in its eyes, it softly said, "Pikapi..." Ash looked into his pokemon's large caring eyes. Then he looked back at Geoff, who looked a few seconds from death. Ash gasped, "Oh my god... what am I doing???"  
  
Ash let go of his enemy's throat and stood up quickly. Geoff rolled over to his stomach coughing and wheezing. Ash backed away a few steps. "Oh my god..." he repeated, the looked at Pikachu, who looked almost fearful of its trainer. "Pikachu..." Ash said softly, "I'm... I'm sorry. I can't believe I was almost willing to kill."  
  
Ash knelt down and opened his arms for Pikachu. "Thank you..." Ash said softly, as Pikachu rushed up and leaped into the boy's arms. "Thank you Pikachu, if you didn't stop me... I would have done something that I would have regretted my whole life." He gave his pokemon a hug, which returned it with a tiny loving charge of static electricity.  
  
The mood was broken as Ash heard Geoff scramble off the floor and onto his feet, stumbling out the recently made exit. "DAMNIT!" Ash cursed, realizing he made the same mistake as before, he took his eyes off Geoff, "I'm not going to kill you, but I'll be DAMNED IF I LET YOU GET AWAY!!!"  
  
Ash took off after Geoff but stumbled slightly. The pain had finally caught up with Ash. Ash tried to fight against the pain and got back to his feet and moved as quick as he could after Geoff.  
  
What didn't realize is, Geoff got about 5 meters from his house before he ran straight into a very fierce kick to his groin. Misty and Brock had made it to Geoff's house, just in time to see Geoff run out. Misty ran up to meet him and threw her foot into his balls.  
  
Geoff screamed and collapsed to the ground in agony. Misty screamed at him "I WARNED you what would happen if you laid a hand on my Ash!" Brock, his face contorted with rage, picked Geoff up from the ground by his color. "WHERE'S ASH???" Brock bellowed into Geoff's face.  
  
Ash managed to get outside, he tried to yell to Brock, but his throat hurt too much to yell. "PIKACHU PIKA!" Pikachu yelled out to them. Brock saw Ash standing there and felt relief flood into him. He threw Geoff to the ground, the villain still reeling from Misty's devastating low blow, and called out his rock-snake pokemon, "ONIX!" Brock ordered, "Keep an eye on this guy... if he moves an INCH, squash him!"  
  
Misty had took off into a sprint the second she saw Ash. She made it to Ash in what seemed like no time. "Easy Ash," she said, putting an arm around, "Are you alright?"  
  
Ash smiled slightly, and croaked hoarsely, "I'm fine Misty." Misty just glared at his bloody face, Ash shook his head, "It's just a cut, really, I'm fine."  
  
Brock ran up to his friend and joined Misty in helping Ash stay on his feet. "That's a nasty cut you got there," Brock said immediately.  
  
Ash shook his head again, "Really, thank you, but I'm ok."  
  
Misty started to cry slightly, mostly out of relief. "Ash, your neck..."  
  
Ash grimaced as Misty touched it, "Sorry" she said. Ash shrugged slightly, "It's ok, Misty, it probably looks worse then it really is."  
  
Misty made a slight face, her tears slowing down, "Now your just trying to act brave." Ash, feeling better now that his friends were here asked, "I'm glad you guys are here... but... HOW? How did you know...?"  
  
Brock answered him, "We didn't really know where you were. We ran after you as best we could, but we didn't really know where you were. But then we saw Team Rocket's balloon rise up from here just about 10 minutes ago. So we thought here's as good as place as any to find you!"  
  
Misty looked around, "Where's Team Rocket though? Did they have something do with this?"  
  
Ash swallowed hard, his throat really hurt, "Yeah, they saved my life."  
  
"What?" Brock and Misty asked surprised. "I'll tell you about it later... first I think we should call the police or something..." Ash said  
  
Brock helped Ash sit down on the grass. "Your right, Ash." Brock agreed, "Misty, there's got to be a phone inside. You take care of Ash, and I'll be right back. And Onix... remember what I said!"  
  
Onix cried out, "Onix!" and nodded.  
  
Brock walked over to the giant hole in the front wall, "Ash... what the hell did you do here?" Brock thought to himself.  
  
"HEY BROCK!" Misty yelled to him, "I don't think you need to go in there."  
  
Brock turned around, "Why not?" Then he saw why. About 3 police cars were racing this way from just beyond the horizon.  
  
Ten minutes later, the area was swarming with cops, and Ash was being treated by professionals. "Here." An elderly worker said, "Keep this ice pack on your neck, it will help with the swelling."  
  
Ash thanked him, and asked, "How did you guys get here?"  
  
The man scratched his said and said, "Its the darnedest thing, this big hot air balloon shaped like a meowth's head floated right over the precinct, and started shouting that there was a hurt child over here."  
  
"They called me a child?" Ash said raising an eyebrow. "Well... actually if you want to get exact, they called you a twerp." The man said and then walked away.  
  
  
  
THAT made Ash laugh a little bit, till he found it hurt his throat. He sat there with Brock and Misty and watched as Officer Jenny handcuffed Geoff. "Your under arrest for the attempted murder of Ash Ketchum..." She said forcefully shoving the villain towards her squad car, "You have the right to remain silent..."  
  
Geoff spit on the ground, "I know my rights... "  
  
The other officers around were laying out police tape. Another group were recalling Geoff's pokemon into escape-proof pokeballs, use specifically for dangerous pokemon. Ash turned his gaze over to watch an Officer named Ed recall Alakazam into one such pokeball. "There's something very therapeutic about that." Ash thought to himself.  
  
Ash readjusted his ice pack silently and shifted his gaze back to Geoff. Officer Jenny was pushing Geoff into the back seat of her squad car. Ash locked eyes with his enemy. Ash could see more hatred in his eyes then he had 24 hours ago. The squad car pulled away, but Ash continued to stare for a few more minutes until he heard Misty say, "Ash?"  
  
"Hmm?" Ash broke his gaze to look at the red head.  
  
"You ok? You looked like you were starting to space out." She asked. Brock looked concerned at Ash, "They said you didn't have a concussion, but if your starting to space out Ash..."  
  
Ash put his hand to stop his friend. "Don't worry, I wasn't spacing out. I was thinking."  
  
Misty leaned into her friend gently, and asked gently, "What about?"  
  
Ash opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a car speeding to a stop. "MY BABY!" Ash heard his mother cry out as she burst out of the car.  
  
His mother wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Ash grimaced slightly as his mom hugged his neck, but he didn't say anything, he just hugged her back just as tightly. He could feel her crying. "Don't cry mom," He said softly, "I'm ok now."  
  
"I'm just so happy..." she said between sobs, and hugged even tighter. Misty and Brock watched this and smiled. "That's so beautiful" Misty said her eyes getting watery. Misty caught Brock wiping his eyes.  
  
After a minute Ash was let go by his mother, and she gave him a disapproving face. "Just LOOK what you did to your nice suit!" She scolded, the tone of voice made it clear she was trying to make her son smile.  
  
It did what it was suppose to, "Mom," Ash replied, "After I was nearly buried in this suit... do you think I'd EVER wear this again?"  
  
His mom felt laughter bubble up in her, so she let it out, why not? She certainly hadn't done any of that in the last few days. Her laughter turned to tears of joy again and she hugged her son again.  
  
Just as him Mom let go of her son, Ash made a funny face. "Ash?" Misty asked, "What's wrong?"  
  
Suddenly Ash's stomach let out a very loud gurgle. Ash blushed, and said sheepishly, "I just realized that I haven't eaten in over two days! I'm hungry!"  
  
Everyone, not just his mom, laughed at this. Ash's mom looked at him and smiled and said, "Everyone was going to come back to our house from the funeral, so there's enough food there to feed a snorlax!"  
  
Ash leapt up and croaked out, "come on! What are we waiting for?"  
  
Brock stood up and said, "Ash. We can't go away until the officers let us go."  
  
Ash groaned and sat back down. "Don't worry Ash." Brock said, "I'll go have a word with the lovely Officer Jenny and see if I can speed things up."  
  
"Didn't Officer Jenny leave already?" Misty asked.  
  
"Yeah," Ash agreed, "With Geoff."  
  
"Oh, that was the Pallet town Officer Jenny," Brock explained, "The Pewter City Officer Jenny is still here!" And Brock quickly headed off to flirt with. I mean, to talk with the officer.  
  
Misty stood up, "Oh no." she complained, "If he starts up with Officer Jenny, we'll be lucky if we EVER get out of here. I'd better go keep an eye on him."  
  
Misty gave Ash a glance, reluctant to leave. Ash smiled, and whispered, "Relax Misty, it's over now, I'll be fine."  
  
Misty waited a second and Ash's Mom hugged him again, "Go on Misty" she said, "I'll make sure he'll be fine" And smiled.  
  
Misty nodded and ran off after Brock, who was already begging the officer for her phone number, "BROCK!" Misty bellowed, "Your going to get yourself arrested. AGAIN!"  
  
  
  
ABOUT TWO HOURS LATER  
  
Misty, Brock, Ash, and his mom finally make it back home. "I can't wait to change out of this suit," Ash said, "I think I'll do that before I even eat!"  
  
Misty nodded, "Yeah, its kinda creepy seeing you in it."  
  
The quartet walked through the door and was met with a blast of excitement. "HURRAY!!!" "Welcome back!" "I'm so happy." "We love you!" were just some of the phrases that were all yelled at once. Ash looked shocked into the room, it looked like everyone was there! Duplica, Richie, Gary, Tracey, Todd, Casey, Professor Oak, his relatives, and all his pokemon.  
  
It was another hour before Ash could make it upstairs, what with everyone wanting to shake hands with him, or hug him, or talk with him. One highlight was between Ash and Gary. "How's your arm?" Ash asked.  
  
"Meh," Gary shrugged, "It'll be fine. Lucky break for you, its my pokeball throwing arm, otherwise I'd have to embarrass you with a match right here."  
  
Ash grinned, "Yep, lucky me."  
  
Gary then asked, "But seriously, how's that throat of yours? It looks pretty bad."  
  
Ash rubbed his neck gently and said, "It hurts but it looks worse then it really is. Lucky for you though."  
  
"How so?" Gary asked.  
  
"Because if my throat felt better, I'd feel well enough to have a comeback for your lame-ass challenge." Ash said with a large grin. Gary's jaw dropped, surprised at Ash's unusually quick wit. Gary thought of a good comeback, but held it back. "I'll let him win this one," Gary thought, "He's earned it."  
  
Another highlight was when Ash's mom brought out a platter of sandwiches, Ash asked, "Mom, is there another platter in there?"  
  
Ash's mom was puzzled but said, "Sure hunny, there's still 3 or 4 more platters, plus salads and some cake. But you couldn't possibly be hungry enough to eat a whole platter."  
  
Ash grinned and said, "Oh. it's not for me."  
  
Ash ran into the kitchen leaving his mom standing there confused.  
  
Finally, after an hour of being stuck downstairs in his suit, Misty stepped in. ".and that was in 1965 the first time someone tried to take my life. You didn't see me have a party over surviving it though. No sir! I didn't even get a card, mainly because there was a paper shortage that year." Ash's Great Uncle Charlie droned on, The next time it happened was 3 years later." Ash sighed knowing he was stuck for a long one.  
  
Misty interrupted, "I'm sorry sir." And took Ash by the arm, "I just need to borrow him for just one moment, its very important."  
  
"Alright then." Great Uncle Charlie said reluctantly, "But you need to come back later Ashy so you can hear about when the Illuminati tried to abduct me for their experiments."  
  
Ash faked a grin and hurried off with Misty. "Thanks." Ash whispered gratefully, "Uncle Charlie. he's not quite right."  
  
Misty nodded, "I noticed," She then pointed to the stairs, "Now march." She ordered, pushing Ash up the stairs from behind.  
  
Brock caught this out of the corner of his eye, and smiled, then turned his attention back to Gary's sister, May.  
  
Upstairs, Misty waited in Ash's bedroom as Ash got changed in the bathroom. She waited silently until Ash came out, wearing his usual jeans and black T-shirt. Misty winced as she saw Ash. His head was wrapped in white gauze, his left eye was bruised, but his neck was the worst. Against the black shirt, Ash's red swollen bruised neck really stood out. Ash caught Misty's face and said, "I know, I know. I don't look my best right now."  
  
Ash walked over to his bed and picked his hat up off it and put it on. It covered a lot of the gauze. "Better?" He asked.  
  
"Almost." Misty said and walked over to Ash's dresser. She rummaged around as Ash looked at her puzzled. "Here." She said handing him a deep blue turtleneck sweater, "That'll cover up your neck so no one will stare tonight, and I bet you the soft wool will feel good against it." Misty smiled at him.  
  
Ash returned the smile and put the sweater on over his T-shirt. "How's that?" Ash asked.  
  
"Looks good to me!" Misty said happily and blushed. Ash blushed slightly back.  
  
"Ash." Misty said, "Before we go back downstairs. there's two things I want to do, but only if you're feeling ok."  
  
Ash puzzled, said, "Don't worry Misty, I'm more ok then I look."  
  
"Ok." Misty said, and walked to her friend, "Well first." She then smacked her friend HARD upside his head.  
  
Ash yelped, "OUCH!!"  
  
"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU GO OFF ALONE???" Misty reprimanded angrily, "Do you have any idea how upset I was when I thought you were dead, then you come back to life, and you run off to your death again?"  
  
Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Misty I."  
  
Misty continued, "Ash, why would you run away from us? We're your friends, we'd have helped you!"  
  
Ash looked at Misty. He knew he would have been angry for that hit, if it wasn't for one thing. she was absolutely right. "I'm sorry Misty" Ash said, "I wasn't in the best frame of mind then. Geoff threatened my family. and you. I had to stop him, and I didn't want anyone I cared about to get hurt!"  
  
Misty's iron gaze softened. "Alright, its ok. What's done is done, just use your brain more in the future, ok?" Ash nodded. Misty continued, "I'm sorry I hit you so hard. are you ok?"  
  
Ash grinned, "Oh I have a thick skull, you know that" Ash said, and his faced turned a bit apprehensive, "but I'm not sure I want to know what the second thing you wanted to do was."  
  
Misty grinned, shrugged, and said, "Too bad." She then tackled her friend in a huge hug, both teens landing on the bed. "Oh Ash." she said, "I thought I'd lost you!"  
  
"I'm sorry Misty" Ash said hugging her back, "I thought I was going to lose you too."  
  
"Well you have me now." Misty said looking into Ash's eyes.  
  
"I do." Ash replied.  
  
The two teens stared at each other for a minute. Leaned in. And kissed.  
  
At about that time outside three shadowy figures crept up the house. "Alright then" Jessie said, "Now that we know the twerp is alive and well, now's the perfect chance to kidnap that Pikachu."  
  
James agreed, "He'll be so busy celebrating he'll never see us coming."  
  
Meowth laughed, "I bet he couldn't have guessed that we'd show up here tonight!" The three crept around back and sneaked up to the door. "Hey." Meowth asked, "What's that?"  
  
On the backdoor step there was something large and covered in aluminum foil. On the foil was an envelope marked, "To Team Rocket"  
  
The trio looked at each other, and James took off the envelope and opened it. Inside was a letter, which James read out loud. "Team Rocket, Thank you for your help against Geoff. If you hadn't showed up when you did I know I'd probably be dead. again. I'm sorry I waved a gun at you, I was a little mad at the time. I'd invite you into the party but I doubt you'd accept, so please accept this as a token of my thanks."  
  
Jessie removed the foil to reveal a mound of sandwiches, a bowl of salad, and an entire cake. All three got misty eyed over this. "Oh. how sweet" Jessie said. "With twerps like him, who needs friend?" Meowth agreed.  
  
James picked up the tray and said, "Maybe we should leave him alone for the night?"  
  
Jessie nodded, "Yeah I think he's earned the night off!"  
  
Team Rocket tip toed off the property and whispered, "Looks like Team Rocket's NOT blasting off this time!"  
  
  
  
Four hours later, the party showed no signs of dying. But if a friend coming back from the dead isn't cause for a huge celebration, then I don't know what is! Everyone was still going strong, except for Mrs. Ketchum, who fell asleep an hour ago. Everyone just let her sleep because they knew she needed the rest.  
  
Outside Ash stood on the steps looking up at the stars. He held a twig in his hands, broke it half, and tossed it aside. He was lost in thought. Misty came outside, "There you are" She said, seeing her breath in the air, "Come on back in, you'll catch cold!"  
  
Ash pulled on his sweater's neck to show it to her, "I have a sweater on, I'm warm enough."  
  
Misty sat down next to Ash, and took his hand. "You want to talk about it?"  
  
"About what?" Ash asked, still lost in thought.  
  
"Whatever it is that is eating your brain right now." Misty replied.  
  
Behind them, a voice said, "I could tell you what's bothering him."  
  
Ash and Misty turned around to see Professor Oak standing there. Oak looked down at the two teens on the steps and noticed that they were holding hands. Professor Oak smiled but didn't make a big deal about it, no sense in embarrassing them.  
  
Ash asked, "Oh hi Professor, how do you know what's bothering me?"  
  
Professor Oak smiled and said, "Because, I've known you a long time. And from what I've heard about your adventure, I'd say it shattered some of your ideals."  
  
Misty looked at Professor Oak, then at Ash who was wincing slightly. "What does he mean Ash?" Misty asked softly.  
  
"Do you want to tell her?" The wizened elder asked.  
  
Ash shook his head no. "I honestly don't really understand it myself." Ash admitted, "Maybe you could tell me."  
  
"Its really simple Ash." Professor Oak explained, "You see, your whole life you've loved pokemon, and you have strong ideals about them. You've always looked at pokemon as honest, trustworthy, loving creatures. If a pokemon does something bad, its not IT'S fault. it's the trainer. But now." Oak trailed off.  
  
Ash picked up, "Now I know I was naïve. Not all pokemon are good. Alakazam and Gangar were doing more then just following orders. they WANTED to hurt me. They were enjoying it."  
  
Misty saw the pain in Ash's face, and leaned into him, hugging him slightly.  
  
"I know it upsets you Ash," Professor Oak explained, "But you shouldn't be upset by it."  
  
Ash looked up at his mentor.  
  
"You see," The professor went on, "Just like in humans, pokemon have both good and evil tendencies. Take your pokemon for example. All of them have their likes and dislikes, their loves and their hates. But because you've been such a good trainer and friend to them, they've grown into noble, kindhearted pokemon. But when pokemon are raised by someone with hatred in their hearts, they can become as evil, as filled with hate, as their trainer. THAT is why we must treat pokemon and humans how we'd want to be treated ourselves."  
  
Ash and Misty looked at each other and smiled. Then they looked back up at Professor Oak. Misty a little misty-eyed smiled and said, "That's so beautiful."  
  
Ash nodded agreeing, "And it makes a lot of sense. Thank you, I feel better now."  
  
Professor Oak smiled back. "I'm glad I could help." The teens looked back at each other staring into each other eyes. Oak smiled and knowing that the two wanted to be alone, said, "Well, I best be getting inside."  
  
Ash and Misty stayed outside for a while longer, keeping each other warm, both in both body and spirit.  
  
The party continued WELL into the night. I could write another story just on this party, but that's something for another day. One of the highlights was Brock declaring that this is no longer a Funeral Party, this was a "Lazarus Party!" Something Ash didn't quite understand. Misty sighed, she loved him but boy could be dim at times. Tracey got some great sketches of the wild party, and Todd took some great photos, you'll have to ask Ash to show them to you sometime, especially the one where Ash and Misty got caught kissing. Todd's camera almost didn't survive that. But the sweetest part of the night was Ash and Misty falling asleep cuddled into each other on the couch. (If you want, I believe Todd has a picture of that too! But don't tell Ash or Misty. Todd's would never survive if they had that knowledge!)  
  
The End  
  
Thanks for reading, .. but wait... we're not through yet.... the story definately is over... but there I have bonus chapter 5 up... if your curious what that could be about, i suggest you go check it out, you wont be sorry! If your NOT curious... well still check it out, dont be a pain in the ass! hehe. 


	5. Trapped Souls: Bonus Chapter 5

Just because this story was such a downer in parts, I decided to have a little fun in the end and treat this story as if it was a DVD. And like all DVD's there has to be extras! Just about everything in this bonus chapter is done for fun, and hopefully will get a laugh or two. However, if you havent read the story yet, most of these jokes will probably either not make sense, or ruin the ending for you. Anyway, Enjoy!  
  
Thank you for you buying the DVD version of "Trapped Souls". You won't be sorry you did! This last chapter is jammed packed with extras such as Outtakes, Trailers, and even deleted scenes! The story might be over, but that doesnt mean we still cant have some more fun with it, so please sit back, relax and enjoy!  
  
  
  
PART 1: (TRAILERS) This is a trailer of a comedy i wrote a while back... its pretty funny, (so's the trailer) but if you dont want to read it just skip to part 2, thats where it starts getting good!  
  
Trailer #1: (This trailer has been rated for everyone by the Fanfic Society of America) Announcer: "It's another beautiful day in Pallet town, so just what is our pokemon master in training doing right now? But more importantly, who really gives a shit? You know how much they pay me? 100 bucks an episode. Pikachu gets more money just for taking a Pikashit! I've had it with this crap. I'm out of here. *sounds of footsteps walking away* . . . . . . . (That's right! One of the zaniest pokemon comedies of all time is coming back! "Going to School" The jokes come fast and furious in this crazy comedy, including the famous "lion king" gag. Its R rated for a reason, there's nothing sacred. )  
  
"Oh, you know Professor Oak," Ash said, "He's always been a bit eccentric. remember that  
  
time the Professor tried to catch a Diglet?"  
  
FLASHBACK  
  
Professor Oak, stalks on the screen carrying a gun and wearing a large deerstalker cap, looks at the  
  
screen. "Shhhhhhh.. Be vewwy vewwy quiet. I'm hunting wiglets! Heheheheheh" Then stalks off the  
  
screen.  
  
(Already released to the address of http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=97986 Be there AND be square!)  
  
***********  
  
PART 2: (Deleted Scenes)  
  
This scene should start right after Ash leaves Geoff's house, still a spirit.  
  
*START SCENE  
  
Ash flew as fast as he could into Pallet Town. "Alright," Ash talked to himself, "THINK, where's the funeral parlor..." Ash flew down a few blocks, thinking... He stopped suddenly. "ORANGE AVE!!! Right of Apple street! The funeral parlor is right there!" Ash bolted right for the old building and right through the wall.  
  
Ash flew from room to room, "Damnit! Where's MY room??? I can't be late can I? Oh man, if I'm late, I'm done for, I don't know where they'll have taken me!!!"  
  
Ash, frantic, flew from one room to another. Suddenly Ash stopped and thought. "Wait... my funeral wouldn't be at the funeral parlor... It'd be at a church. Ash's ghost actually seemed to turn a pinker tone as Ash 'blushed'. "Man am I stupid sometimes..." Ash floated up through the ceiling and out of the funeral parlor. As he took off towards the church, Ash thought to himself, "When I tell this story to Misty later, I think I'll leave this part out..."  
  
  
  
*END SCENE  
  
Authors Commentary: That there was a real scene that I had to take out. I liked the idea of a of comic relief. And it struck me as funny that in a panic Ash would run to the wrong place. Even better I really loved "I'll have to leave this part out" line. However, Unfortunately, it seemed to kill the urgency of Ash trying to get to his body. I tried working it around but it just didn't work out, so sadly, it went to the cutting room floor. Well that's what extras are for!  
  
************  
  
*DELETED SCENE #2  
  
This one should take place when Ash is in Team Rocket's Balloon.  
  
*START SCENE  
  
"There it is!" Ash cried, "Geoff's place. You ready Pikachu?"  
  
Pikachu nodded, "Pika!"  
  
Ash fiddled with some of the wires on the fire gizmo. "Damnit!" Ash cried out as the Balloon shifted up, and did a 360. "How the hell do you work this thing? We need to go DOWN!"  
  
Pikachu couldn't take it, and yelled, "PIKACHU!!" And it released a thunderbolt through the balloon. The Balloon burst and Ash fell to the ground and landed with a solid thud. Ash was jostled but otherwise ok, as was Pikachu.  
  
Ash looked down at the deflated balloon, then at his Pikachu. Then grinned. "Not exactly what I meant, but I suppose any way that works!"  
  
*END SCENE  
  
Author's Commentary: "I'll make this short and sweet because I know you probably want to get to the outtakes. This scene was deleted and redone because as funny as it is to see Ash know what its like to have Pikachu burst the Team Rocket's Balloon, the balloon NEEDED to be intact for later when Team Rocket takes off. Oh well, too bad, so sad. Now please move on to the outtakes! :-D  
  
************  
  
PART #3 OUTTAKES  
  
Author's Commentary: "This was a great story to write and to direct, but don't let anyone tell you that the cast of pokemon are easy to work with. Between the mistakes they made, and the goofing around they did, I didn't think we'd ever get this one done. Ash and Geoff were the WORST!!! They used to go non-stop!  
  
Outtake #1: The ref spoke up, his voice booming throughout the stadium, "This round one battle is against Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, and Harry Rottop of Celedon City. It will be a three on three battle, a pokemon is out once it is called back, or cannot battle any longer. BEGIN!!!"  
  
The crowded exploded with cheers as Ash pulled out his pokeball, "Alright lets start this out right, I choose you Noctowl!"  
  
And out of the pokeball came a dancing blue crocodile, Totodile! The pokemon looked at Ash and danced laughing, "Toto toto toto dile!"  
  
Author: "CUT!" Geoff covers his face with his hand  
  
Ash groaned, "Who switched my pokeballs on me?"  
  
**************  
  
Outtake #2: The ref up to Harry yelling at him, "You're disqualified, and you're going to be arrested! Stay where you are!"  
  
Harry grinned evilly. Without even paying attention to the ref, he called back his Gangar and called out his Alakazam. "Alakazam, teleport all of us out of here."  
  
Alakazam nodded curtly and disappeared... leaving Geoff standing there. (Laughter breaks out from backstage)  
  
Author: "CUT!"  
  
Geoff laughed, "Next time Alakazam, take ME with you!"  
  
  
  
*************  
  
Outtake #3 The room was silent. No one spoke a word, but sometimes words just aren't important. What was important was that everyone was there for one another. One the outside, everyone was dressed up looking nice, and proper, but if you looked closely you could see that they were all showing the effects of fatigue, evidence that none of them had much sleep since the tragedy.  
  
Misty spoke softly, "I'm going to go outside for a minute, I need some fresh air." As Misty stands up she walks by Ash's coffin, Psyduck pops out of its pokeball and appears standing on Ash's face.  
  
From underneath we hear Ash say, "Misty... would you please get Psyduck off me..."  
  
Misty is helpless with laughter, as is everyone else in the scene.  
  
Author: *laughing loudly* "Cut!"  
  
************  
  
Outtake #4 Ash shook his head, he couldn't believe this was happening, "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Its really quite simple." Geoff said, "My Gangar removed your soul out of your body. It's a little trick I taught him. Right now, your body is a lifeless, soulless husk; dead for all general purpose. No brainwaves, no heartbeeps, no..."  
  
Ash starts to giggle.  
  
Author: "Geoff, did you actually just say Heartbeeps?"  
  
Geoff looks shocked, "Did I?"  
  
TAKE 2!!!  
  
Ash shook his head, he couldn't believe this was happening, "What are you talking about?"  
  
"Its really quite simple." Geoff said, "My Gangar removed your soul out of your body. It's a little trick I taught him. Right now, your body is a lifeless, soulless husk; dead for all general purpose. No brainwaves, no heartbeeps, aw shit I did it again!"  
  
Author: "CUT! The word is heartbeats!"  
  
Geoff sighing, "Alright Alright. got it"  
  
TAKE 3!!!  
  
"Its really quite simple." Geoff said, "My Gangar removed your soul out of your body. It's a little trick I taught him. Right now, your body is a lifeless, soulless. lifeless. soulless. soulless."  
  
"Husk?" Ash asked.  
  
"HUSK!" Geoff said, "Yes a husk. a mere empty shell."  
  
"With no heartbeeps, right?" Ash asked laughing.  
  
Geoff joined in with the laughing.  
  
Author: "CUT! Alright guys, enough, lets get this scene."  
  
TAKE 4!!!  
  
"Its really quite simple." Geoff said. and starts to crack up right away, along with Ash. The two laugh uncontrollably, causing people offstage to start laughing too.  
  
Author: "Ok. that's enough, let's break for lunch."  
  
Geoff waving his hand trying to stop laughing, "Sorry, I'm sorry!"  
  
************  
  
Outtake #5 Ash felt like he could cry at this point. Here he was a disembodied spirit, at the hands of an obvious madman, intent on killing him, for god only knows what reason. "But WHY???? Why me?"  
  
"BECAUSE YOU'VE RUINED MY LIFE!!!" Geoff screamed so loudly that it actually shook some of the dust off the ceiling. Ash backed up slightly. Geoff moved in on him, his face twisted with rage, "You little bastard, I was Sabrina's next in command of that school and..."  
  
The scene is interrupted as Togepi happily walks by, "Toge, Toge, toge, toge.". Misty is close behind, going, "Togepi, get back here, they're filming!"  
  
Geoff and Ash watch Misty run off, then Geoff looks back at Ash. Ash asks, "So... you were saying?"  
  
"Ah, yes" Geoff continues without missing a beat, "I was THIS close to becoming as powerful a psychic as Sabrina, but then you came along. You cheered her up..."  
  
Author: "Nice try guys, would you cut already? And Misty would you please keep Togepi in closer check?"  
  
Misty calling over, "Sorry!" Togepi cried, "Toge!!"  
  
*************  
  
Outtake #6: Mrs. Ketchum laughed gently, and sadly said, "Oh they were best friends growing up. They were just competitive."  
  
"Oh yeah," Misty said, "Ash was definitely that."  
  
Silence enveloped the two. Then Mrs. Ketchum reached in her pocket and pulled out some photos. "What's that?" Misty asked.  
  
Mrs. Ketchum showed them to Misty, they were photos of Ash. "That nice boy Todd, he gave these to me, he thought I might appreciate them."  
  
Mrs. Ketchum looked closely at one picture and then said, "Oh my poor Ashy... I hope you had clean underwear on when you were killed."  
  
Misty bursts out laughing and from offstage we hear Ash yell, "MOM!!!"  
  
Ash's mom laughs hard and points at Misty, "She put me up to it!!"  
  
Misty falls out of the chair laughing, "I got you, that's for that Caterpie you put in my trailer today!" Off stage we hear Ash, "Grr..."  
  
*********  
  
Outtake #7 Gary looked like he'd been slapped. He opened his mouth and then closed it, not knowing what to say. Brock continued, "If it wasn't for Ash's beliefs, I myself would have found this son of a bitch, and let my Onix have him. But Ash never believed pokemon should be used for war or violence. And so I honor him by not."  
  
Gary's face cracked again, and Brock thought he might have seen a tear, but Gary put up his brave front again. "Well... we'll see." Brock nodded and the two went off into the kitchen. But before they could get in there, the doorbell rang again. Brock puzzled thinking the scene was over walks over to the door. He opens it to see Ash standing there.  
  
"Can I have breakfast too?" Ash asks.  
  
Brock rolls his eyes and shuts the door.  
  
The director trying to sound serious but fighting back laughter, "Ash, your not in this scene, your dead right now!"  
  
Through the closed door, Ash says, ".but I'm hungry!"  
  
**********  
  
Outtake #8 Brock walked off, his face wet with tears. It was now Misty's turn. She walked to the coffin, holding Pikachu. "Oh Ash." She said softly, "I cant believed this happened, and I never got to tell you how I felt about you. I know I was always hard on you, and I know I always told you..."  
  
Misty was interrupted by Ash who coughed a few times. There's a pause. Misty starts to crack, as does Ash. With a big smile on her face, she continues, "I can't believe you're gone..." Ash starts to shaking with laughter. "Completely dead with no signs of life at all."  
  
Author: "CUT!"  
  
***********  
  
Outtake #9  
  
Brock walked off, his face wet with tears. It was now Misty's turn. She walked to the coffin, holding Pikachu. "Oh Ash." She said softly... But Ash sits up and grabs Misty and pulls her into the coffin with him, "Ohhh Misty!"  
  
Misty shrieks in surprise and laughter. Even the director cracks up.  
  
************  
  
Outtake #10  
  
Brock walked off, his face wet with tears. It was now Misty's turn. She walked to the coffin, holding Pikachu. Brock walks back. "Good that he's dead, huh?" Brock says, "He was such a whiny twerp wasn't he?" "Oh yeah!" Misty says, grinning "Now that he's out of the picture maybe I'll get top billing on the show!"  
  
Ash without sitting up says dryly, "You guys are assholes, you know that, right?"  
  
Everyone cracks up, except Ash's mom, "Ash! Language!"  
  
************  
  
Outtake #11: Geoff appeared at the door at the top of the steps and looked down at Ash lying there. He was wearing a long dark trenchcoat with a long brimmed hat. Obviously he had just come from somewhere. "Young man." He said, "Did you really think you were going to turn my pokemon against me? They are LOYAL to me, and believe me, they hate you as much as I do. You're just a play thing to them."  
  
Ash floated listening to Geoff, but suddenly the cords holding Ash up snapped and Ash came crashing face first into the floor. "Augh!" Ash cried out. Geoff rushed down the stairs, "Damn, you ok?" he asked, as other movie workers ran onto stage.  
  
Ash was helped up, "I'm ok, I'm ok..." Ash then looked up and yelled mildly annoyed, "You want to be more careful with those wires?"  
  
James and Meowth yell down, "Don't blame us, we just work the floating gizmo, we don't make the wires!"  
  
***********  
  
Outtake #12 "*cough* *cough*" The noise came from behind Brock and Misty who spun around to see their friend sitting up, Ash weakly said, "Apparently he's come here to see his handy work, isn't that right Geoff?"  
  
Suddenly the lid to the coffin slipped back down and caught Ash right in the head. Everyone went "Ooooooo!" Misty and his mom rushed over to help Ash, "You ok, baby?" Ash's Mom asked, stifling a laugh.  
  
Ash noticed that Misty was trying not to laugh as well. "Yeah, I love both of you too." Ash said sarcastically.  
  
"Oh Ash," Misty said, "We're laughing WITH you... not at you... its just that your not laughing!"  
  
"Oh, ha ha." Ash said sticking his tongue out at Misty.  
  
***********  
  
Outtake #13 The first to snap out of it was Mrs. Ketchum. "MY BABY!!!" She cried out, "Your alive!!!" She wept hard as she moved in and hugged her son, still sitting in the casket. Misty and Brock quickly joined her. Pikachu jumped up onto his shoulder and hugged his head. "But.. but how??" Brock asked, what everyone was thinking, but he was the only one that still had his voice.  
  
Ash looked at Geoff who was backing away. "Sorry Brock, no time for that now" Ash shrugged off his mother and Misty and tried to hop out of his casket, but got caught up, slipped and crashed face first into the floor.  
  
No laughing at Ash's misfortune this time, everyone rushed over to see if Ash was ok.  
  
"Hey Ash," Geoff said helping Ash up, "Maybe we need to get you a stuntman!"  
  
*********  
  
Outtake #14: Meanwhile, Jessie, James, and Meowth were looking quite depressed. Jessie sighed, "Alright, so maybe coming up with a plan to find this guy maybe harder then we thought." Suddenly Jessie started to cry, "I can't believe our little twerp is gone. Its not really like he was such a bad kid." James sniffed into his hankie, "It's just so sudden... Its almost like I can still hear him..."  
  
As if on cue... Ash burst through some bushes right in front of them, "GREAT!" He yelled, "I found it!" And suddenly, out bursts another Ash (???) through the woods and says, "Great! I found it!"  
  
The real Ash Ketchum just stares at his double and says, "Duplica... would you stop it, I HATE when you do that!"  
  
Duplica laughs. Ash walks off, and mumbles, "Creeps the HELL out of me!"  
  
********* Outtake #15: Scyther came out of its ball and held its blade like arms up menacingly. Ash took a step back and said, "It's a little different this time Geoff," Ash said boldly, "This time I have my pokemon with me, and as we saw at our little match back at the Indigo Leauge, my pokemon can kick your pokemon's asses, any time." With that Ash took a pokeball off his belt, "Bayleaf, I need you now!" And Ash threw his pokeball...  
  
...and to Ash's surprise, out came Bayleaf which quickly ran up and started nuzzling him, "Bay bay!!" Geoff started to laugh, and Ash laughed with him, hugging his pokemon. Then he said, "Ummm... if its not too much trouble, my pokeballs were suppose to be empty!"  
  
Author: "CUT!"  
  
Brock laughs off stage and yells, "Hey Ash, maybe you should talk to Misty about helping you empty your balls!" A loud crash is heard off stage and we hear Brock yelp in pain.  
  
*********  
  
Outtake #16: Ash slips into Geoff home, to see Geoff standing there in the middle of the floor. Geoff looks at Ash and says, "So you have come... I knew you couldn't resist. Before I destroy you, I must tell you... ASH! I... am your father!"  
  
Ash gasps, "No! It's not true!"  
  
Geoff pulls out a light saber, (obviously borrowed from the props department), "And now young Ash, you will join the Darkside... or die!"  
  
Ash pulls out a light saber of his own, "I will NEVER join you!" And the two proceed to have a mock Jedi battle. The laughter from backstage was incredible.  
  
Author: "Alright alright, that's enough you had your fun."  
  
Geoff and Ash break down laughing so hard they're nearly crying, Ash puts two fingers together and waves them slowly at the author, "You WILL let us keep playing."  
  
The laughter gets louder.  
  
Author sighing says, "Maybe we should break for lunch people... *SIGHS* I knew I shouldn't have let them watch Star Wars Episode 2 last night!"  
  
**********  
  
Outtake#17: "Yeah... good thinking," Ash said. Ash saw the balloon take off. "PIKAPI!!!" Pikachu cried out. Ash turned around just in time to see Geoff charging him swinging something at his head. But as Geoff and Ash had planned ahead of time, Ash ducks under the lamp, "kicks" Geoff in the stomach, and then gives him a "Stone Cold Stunner!" Geoff, who's idea this joke was, leapt backwards and landed on his back twitching, completely selling the WWE move.  
  
Brock who was in on the joke yelled out, "STUNNER!! STUNNER!! Geoff is down!!!" Ash covers him and Brock drops to his knees next to them and counts, "One! Two! Three!!!" Everyone around cheers.  
  
Author: "Is this your way of saying you'd like to break for the night so you can watch the PPV?"  
  
All three guys nod.  
  
Author: "Fine, that's enough for tonight, good night people!"  
  
*********  
  
Well that's it, that's all he wrote. I hope you enjoyed my story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry it took so long for me to finish it. Reviews would be appreciated. I prefer compliments, but honest criticism is appreciated too, but please, no long winded nick-picking reviews from hardcore fans because you happen to know what Geoff's real name was because it was written on the wall behind Ash in episode # whatever, or because I didn't have Pikachu's "language" down correctly. YOU people know who you are :-D. Thank you again for spending your time reading this story, and please look for my new comedy coming out soon, the sequel to "Going to School" hitting Fanfiction.net within the month hopefully. Thanks again and have a good day/afternoon/night. 


End file.
